Interferon Diary, Day #1-2

So Noo has two IV interferon treatments under her belt and here's our impressions so far:

• Pre-treatment anxiety is worse than the treatment itself.
• Sitting in an infusion center for two hours is about as interesting as it sounds.
• A small dose of lorazepam (day #2)  makes the infusion time go by faster.
• So does reading vampire thrillers (Noo) and slightly vulgar essays by John Waters (me).
• Shaking chills develop within 15 minutes after concluding the infusion, usually on the way home in the car.
• Noo says the chills are so awful that it feels WONDERFUL to feel them go away, about two hours later.
• A gnarly, throbbing headache sets in 3-6 hours after returning from infusion.
• Ditto clammy, all-over achiness.
• You will sleep like a rock after infusion. Noo, who tends toward insomnia, thinks this year promises some of the best sleep ever.
• Maybe infusion centers should provide recliners for friends and family members as well as for patients. Napping in a regular chair makes is like sleeping on an airplane.
• Note to self: Signing up for night hospitalist shifts during the first week of infusion therapy was probably not the cleverest idea I've ever had.
• It is OK to lower expectations during infusion week. (Hint: I don't have all my tax stuff pulled together yet.)

Our Girl Friday is taking Noo to infusion today, so I can take a wee nap and get some essential paperwork (damn those reapplication for hospital privilege deadlines!) done. If it were up to me, cancer patients and their families could flip a switch and go into Bureaucratic Bypass mode for the duration of their treatments.

Comments

[PookieMD]

Friend recently diagnosed w/ breast cancer is going through the infusion chair gig. I try to call her while she is in the chair, and have organized a prayer chain. Having one of my best friends be diagnosed with cancer and dealing with cancer patients at the hospital wrung me out. Hope you can carve out some time for yourself.

[rlbates]

Happy you have a Girl Friday!

[pat]

You've got the bureaucratic bypass thing right. My partner was diagnosed with colorectal cancer the same week as Noo (I would have commented but I was totally obsessed with getting all of the staging studies scheduled). I am a PA who had worked in oncology so I had all the time in the world to do extensive searches to see how bad the prognosis was with every new bit of information. Anyway, paperwork and Christmas presents and cards and bills and tax things and a number of important other small items fell by the wayside. Now that most of the treatment is over and we're just back into the mode of waiting for the next CT scan, I am desperately trying to catch up!