Therapy

The chemo is due to start any second. They gave her a handful of pills before her shower. 5 tiny steroid pills, and one anti-nausea. I think I have already seen the what the chemo drips look like, having been here for a while now. The are mixed by the pharmacy "apothecary" style. They are in much larger bags with fluid that looks like milk (Turns out I am wrong about this, these drips are IV food, it smells like baby formula). The treatment schedule says that today is Ara-C, which I believe is a class of chemo drug, not a specific name, as well as Daunomycin. The Ara-C is also called "Cytarabine", Daunomycin is also called Daunorubicin or Cerubidine (brand name). The Daunomycin injection is seen on the right, it takes less than 5 minutes to complete. They call it a "push". All are just a bunch of names to me, but turns out I was wrong about the 7-3 schedule. Ara-C goes for constantly for 7 days, but Daunomycin only runs for the first 3 days. They overlap for the first three, rather than being in sequence as I first imagined. The effects of the chemo will build for some time, with full impact being realized as much as 10-14 days after the treatment ceases. Each anti-cancer drug has different mechanisms that make them work, for instance some inhibit RNA transcription, others block folate (folic acid). Pretty much all current chemo methods are designed to stop cell division, since cancer cells are rapidly dividing.

They are preparing her for the chemo now. The nurses take a number of precautions when dealing with the drips. They wear full plastic gowns and gloves, mostly to protect themselves. They also prepare a "flush" drip to go along with the chemo, so that the lines are cleaned afterwards. The main idea is that this stuff is toxic, and nobody else should be exposed to it. This is the reality of chemo therapy; we are giving her poison to make her better.

So far so good. As soon as the Ara-C drip is hooked up, Roni, Liz, and Austin show up... with treats. We spent at least two hours in the sun out side. Long enough to discover what the "Low Battery" beep sounds like. Roni brought Twinkis of course. Kristi ate one! Now we will never know if it was the chemo or the Twinkis that killed the cancer. They also droped off a box of Hatch Family Chocolates from Sara. Yum, thanks guys. Anyway, Kristi doesn't feel any appreciable change now that treatment has started. Save one thing, her pee turned pink immediately folowing the Daunomycin. Ahhh scary, the nurse forgot to warn her, it's totally normal.