The district nurse called at my home this afternoon to take the chemo pump down. I’ve had 46 hours of 5FU (aka Florouracil) intravenously via a Hickman Line which takes the chemo straight into the blood system. Hence to kill all dividing cells. Hopefully all the newest cancer cells but hair, toes and finger nails, mouth lining and any other bits that are in perpetual renewal.
My mouth is still sore but salt water rinses after teeth cleaning seems to help.
Good News though! I re-read the leaflet that came with the Dexamethasone (steroid tablets) I have to take for three days after treatment. It said to take them WITH food (not AFTER as I’d done on Day 2) and consequently the feelings of nausea are considerably diminished.
I quite like the effect of the steroids. I think they’re to reduce inflammation but they do give you a bit of a boost. I ordered four garden storage boxes from Amazon for delivery in August, a decision prevaricated over for months. Wrote out a whole new gardening plan and spent a happy hour of Googling photos of district nurses in the 1940s on Wikicommons and posting them on Twitter.
Anyway, that’s the first dose of poison into my system and hopefully the side effects are not too bad and, more importantly, they do the job and kill the cancer cells. Funny that Florouracil is shortened to 5FU. I usually use FU for a totally different purpose.
Have a good day and stay safe in these dangerous times with Covid on the increase again.
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