The Chemo Chronicles: 7.3.08

On July 3, 2008, I had my 5th chemo treatment.  This was my first treatment on the full, official MOPP regimen.  My first two treatments included ABVD, which I was taken off of because my pulmonary (lung) function tests showed that I could not receive the B-portion of the regimen which is the medication Bleomycin.  Bleomycin has the tendency to be extremely toxic to the lungs, and they feared that my lungs may become fibrotic and it would damage my lungs further than they already are.  The next two treatments I received were of MOPP, but since Nitrogen Mustard had to be special ordered (I am the first one to ever receive it at the cancer center), they had to substitute the Nitrogen Mustard with Cytoxan.  So here we are at my 5th treatment, receiving the full MOPP treatment which consists of Nitrogen Mustard, Oncovin, Procarbazine and Prednisone.  The picture of me is pre-infusion.  I am always happy to be at the cancer center as everyone there has always been more than helpful, kind, courteous and has gone out of their way to make me comfortable.

A nurse, Diann, had seen my chart and come to the waiting room to get me.  She said that she knew who I was, but since she hadn't had me as a patient before she thought it would be nice to have me as a patient and get to know me.  She ended up being an awesome nurse, and was attentive and contientious of the new treatment.  She mentioned that even though she had never given Nitrogen Mustard, neither had any other nurse there at the cancer center, that she remembered there was a question on her nursing boards about Nitrogen Mustard.  She mentioned she was excited to give it to me. 

I also had a visitor that day.  Earlier in the week, at a small class that was held at the cancer center, I met a survivor of Hodgkin's.  He had all of his treatments there at the cancer center and still actively participates in things going on there.  We got to talking after the class and he told me that there are other Hodgkin's patients that communicate outside of the cancer center.  Brandon mentioned another gentleman named Max that he talks to regularly.  Brandon asked when my next treatment was and said he would come.  He actually made it!  It was nice to see someone else there that understood what I was going through and understood what was being done to me.  We exchanged stories about symptoms, prediagnosis and then he went on to tell me about things that had gone on with him and ultimately his bone marrow transplant.  He was able to harvest his own bone marrow to receive the transplant.  His story was fascinating to me, I would love to hear some of your stories and to learn from everyone that reads this about what types of things you have gone through and might be going through.

So, anyhow…  Back to the treatment.  Both of the medications that I take through an IV infusion, Onconvin and Nitrogen Mustard, are both done through IV push.  When I was getting ABVD, I would be at the cancer center upwards of 5 hours, but this time I was only there just short of two hours.  I had to get my vitals of course, and then they give premeds which consists of a strong anti-emetic, to keep you from getting nauceous, and dexadron, a steroid that helps to keep you from having a reaction to the chemotherapy itself.  Diann also let a 500cc bag of normal saline drip, just to hydrate me and to flush me well because of the Nitrogen Mustard.  She told me that the Nitrogen Mustard must be pushed as soon as it is mixed.  She infused it over 4 minutes - which it is recommended to be pushed between 3 and 5 minutes.  The 4 minutes seemed to work fine with me, causing no adverse effects.  I was nervous though, because she did bring a syringe of Benadryl to the chair-side with her.  No nurse had done it before, I thought there was something I needed to be worried about because she was anticipating some sort of adverse response or effects.  She assured me that she always has it with her just in case.  I took her word for it and let her continue.  Honestly, I thought there would be this IV bag hanging there with some dark yellowish, thick goo that would be dripping into my viens, but as you can see in the picture it was nothing like that at all.

The Nitrogen Mustard hasn't made me sick at all.  I have been lucky to not get sick ever from any chemo treatments.  They say that each chemo treatment may be different, and I might tolerate it differently from day to day.  But all in all each treatment has been pretty much the same.  Each one tends to wipe me out a little bit.  For the first few hours after chemo I have a HUGE surge of energy, followed by a night's good sleep (with the help of temazapam, of course) and then the next few days I experience moderately severe heartburn.  Other than that, aside from the rock-bottom blood levels, I haven't had any bad experience from my treatments.  The indigestion does seem quite a bit worse with this treatment, but I am not sick…  Knock on wood.

So I am off to lay back down.  I need to do some more resting - it can only do a body good!  If you're reading this and are on MOPP, I would love to hear from you.  I would like to see how your treatments are going or have gone, if you were on it previously.

And if you have never been on MOPP, I would still love to hear from you!