Chemo begins

Chemo - Day 1

Jordan went downstairs in the morning around 10:30 for her lumbar puncture to have the Chemo put into her spinal column. They use a light anesthetic for the procedure that makes her sleep, but she doesn’t have a tube in her throat.

The procedure took about 15 minutes. She had to remain laying flat for the next 45 minutes and was then able to go back to her room.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Jordan does have times where she is in a lot of pain and it’s hard to calm her down. They are now treating her anxiety with medication, to keep her nerves calm so she doesn’t have more pain and nausea.
Jordan watches the clock very carefully and knows exactly when she should be getting her next dose of Motrin. If the nurse is even a few minutes late, panic starts to set in and she kind of falls apart. The nurses have learned to combat this by making sure she has what she needs on time.

Jordan spiked a fever today and it got up to 102.5. She was able to break it on her own without any medication.

Tonight she underwent her first Chemo treatment via the port. It was a session that lasted all night. She slept through most of it, although one of the medicines requires them to take her blood pressure every 15 minutes. They strapped a blood pressure cuff to her ankle and the computer just starts the pressure at every 15 minute interval. Donna spent the night with her tonight and I went home for a night.

There is a protocol for her Chemo. The term protocol is what they use, and it indicates a schedule. For example: Day 1 she had the all night session that began at 10:35 pm. In the morning she gets a push (injection by syringe) of one of the same drugs from the night session. She doesn’t have any more Chemo drugs on day one, until 10:35 pm that night, which is when Day 2 begins. Her zero hour is 22:35, each day at this time begins the new day.

Her protocol is intense Chemo for 10 days. They talk about everything in days during this process. At the end of day 10, she will be able to go home as long as she is well. She cannot be running a fever, needs to be able to eat and hold down food, use the bathroom and be able to stand, walk, shower, etc without help. Chemo makes you weak, and they won’t send her home if she cannot take care of herself in these ways.

Day 29 she will return for the next 10 days session. The second 10 day session is exactly the same as the first 10 day session.