First treatment day

November 7: Today was the first day of chemo treatment. It started with a echo cardiogram for a baseline on how my heart is functioning. It's a sort of ultrasound in moving pictures of the heart. They look at overall size, how valves are functioning and valve wall thickness. I joked to the tech that it was a good sign so see it pumping on the screen.

Then, to the treatment room for blood draw to get a baseline on red and white blood cell and platlets. Video on chemo. Talk from the nurse about chemo and what side affects to watch for.

They started by pumping fluids to make sure my kidneys are up for the drugs. And early-on, I consumed quite a few anti-nausea pills in prep for the two chemo drugs. Without fanfare, they started the first chemo drug, etoposide along with the fluids. When that was done, they put on the Cisplatin. This one requires a lot of fluids so we waited for about an hour and a half for that one and the remaining fluids to get pumped in.

After that the day was topped off by a hearing test. Quite an extensive set of tests. These chemo drugs can degrade hearing so they wanted a baseline and then they'll test in another few weeks and in a few months.