The One with the Different Chemo Drugs

2 down...6 to go! Until the next PET scan that is, but hey, at least we have a check point.

Today I'm going to explain the four different drugs of my specific chemo cocktail and what they each do to me. But before that, some general Maggie updates. Summer is very quickly losing its taste for me (it always does in late July) and I am eagerly anticipating the day when I can start packing up for school. At this point, I don't see any reason to miss this semester, especially since SNC has provided me a private room and bathroom. Thanks St. Norbert College :) I am also in a winter/holidays state of mind, so today my work has consisted of listening to Christmas music while I play with spreadsheeets.

Last week's infusion of chemo went a lot better than the first one. We opted not to have the drug that really knocked me out, an anti-nausea drug, and I'm glad we did. I had plenty of other things to keep my stomach happy. I did get tired toward the end and felt really jittery from the steroid.

The infusion goes like this: I have four different chemo drugs, and each has to be administered differently. The four drugs are: adriamycin (doxorubicin), bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD). Usually they go in that order, but because I had a minor reaction to bleo the first time, they ran that one first.

Bleo is clear and comes in a drip. They started me off with a test dose and then gave the full dose, which took a total 20 minutes. It can really mess up your lungs, hence my pulmonary test way back in June. If I had had problems with my lungs already, I probably wouldn't be on this regimen of chemo. After that was adriamycin, which is a bright red drug that causes the hair loss and is administered in a syringe that my nurse slowly pushes into my port. Adrimycin is used in a lot of cancers, and in addition to hair loss also can cause heart damage - so doctors monitor regularly for that.

Vinblastine follows, and while that's also a drip, it's a really fast one. It's clear like Bleo, but since it rarely causes any reactions the nurses don't have to do a test dose. Apparently it can cause nerve damage, but so far I haven't noticed anything. Dacarbazine is the last one of the day, and it takes FOREVER. I think this is the one that makes me tired. It takes a half hour, and at this point in the day I am just not having it. It also causes the most nausea, but with so many anti-nausea drugs most Hodgkin's patients don't have problems with nausea.

So those are the four chemo drugs. Let me know if you have any questions!

Current symptoms, side effects, and general complaints: Nothing, except my cold sore won't go away even with medicine. Might indicate that my body's having a harder time fighting infection.