1.21.24 
Round 2 started with a bad poke to my port and then on the second attempt he couldn't get a good blood return so we had to do the blood draw the standard way. We then went up to meet with my Oncologist and he said my white blood cell count was lower so there was a chance we would have to delay chemo for a couple days. After working with the pharmacist they decided to only do 2 of the chemos (Oxaliplatin and Irinotecan) it was decided that they would hold the Avastin another round and would not do 5FU for this session either. I was also given a 2nd dose of the premeds to help with the side affects of the chemo. 

Treatment went smooth otherwise and instead of going home with the 5fu and bag I went home with a neulasta on body injector for the white blood cell meds. Moving forward after each treatment I will receive the white blood cell meds. 

I am writing this the day after treatment and currently listening to the faint beep of the neulasta injector. Today I felt much better than the last round and am hopeful it will stay that way but I am still nervous how the white blood cell meds will make me feel. 

Before I share my experience from this appointment I would like to remind everyone that I am not a medical professional and this is my interpretation of how everything was explained to me. 

The mass in the colon was removed but since it spread to my liver, it is now time to focus on getting the cancer off my liver.

On Friday, Mike and I took a mini road trip up to City of Hope Duarte. The drive was about an hour and when we got there we were amazed at how huge the campus was.  We met with the surgeon who specializes in liver surgery and our meeting was very positive. Since I have 5 lesions on my liver she pulled up my imaging and explained her plan for how she was going to remove each one of them. She had a cartoon image of a liver and drew each of them on there. The liver is on your right side and is almost tucked under my ribs so I was curious how she would get to it for the surgery. She said the incision would be through my midline (about 5 inches above my belly button). Her plan is to use Ablation (basically burn) 4 of them and then cut out the 5th that is closer to the surface. During the surgery she will also implant a HAI pump (it is about the size of my palm and will be a port for chemo).  This will allow them to use a specific chemo and target it directly to the liver. My surgery will be up in Duarte and I should expect to stay at the hospital for 4-5 nights and then plan to heal at home for 6ish weeks. After surgery I will heal for a couple weeks and then start chemo back up. The "cocktail" will be slightly different and we will do about 5- 6 rounds of it. 

It is so nice to have doctors who work together from the beginning to come up with a plan to get rid of all the cancer. 

I am so happy to be done with the first round of Chemo treatment.
A couple days before treatment one of the nurses called me to go over some info on what I should expect during the process. She also went over some possible side effects of each of the types of Chemo. The call was about an hour long, and although it was very informative, I still didn't really know exactly what to expect on the day of treatment. She said I would be at the facility for 5-6 hours and it would be a longer day than usual because it was the first time. 

​I had a 7AM blood draw scheduled, so the night before I got my stuff together to make the morning smooth. Both of my Sister in laws helped put together a little bag of things I might need during my treatment. The bag included some warm socks, a blanket, ginger mints, a planner, and a port pillow for the car. I also added my laptop (which I didn't end up touching) and my phone charger. 

After getting my labs it was time to check in to the infusion center. The nurse talked to us about each medicine, then they started the infusion through my port with fluids and additional meds to help with any side-affects the Chemo might cause. While at the infusion center, they gave me Oxaliplatin and Irinotecan each took about an hour. My friend AnnMarie came to visit during the process so Mike was able to go outside and get some fresh air. Then they had us watch a video about the pump I was going to take home which contained the 5FU treatment. 

Meanwhile, back at home my MIL, Cheryl, watched the Kiddos and my sister in law, Ashley, brought crafts for the girls to make. Once Luca and Scarlett headed down for a nap, my parents and brother swapped places with Cheryl and they got ready for the afternoon/ bedtime shift. 

It was finally time to check out of the infusion center and being super hungry, Mike and I stopped to get an Acai bowl. While eating it, I was also trying to talk with the scheduling department and got a crazy side effect where I had a bad lisp. We had the scheduling department connect us with the nurses who connected us to the dr who assured us it would go away and was most likely caused by the cold bowl. Thankfully about 10 mins later it went away. 

Once we got home, I felt like I had the flu and tried to sleep it off. My friends sent dinner so I got up to have a few bites and then was done for the night. 

46 hours later the pump finally stopped and the 5FU was done. It stopped on a Sunday so I still had to wait until Monday morning to get it disconnected but I was thankful the first treatment was done. Monday morning my friend Alexis drove down from LA to to take me to get the pump removed. After the removal we went to the local bakery to pick up some fresh sourdough and got a tea. 

All in all, this round of treatment made me feel tired, nauseas, and low energy, but I am so thankful for all of my friends and family that have rallied around to help, send words of encouragement, entertain the kiddos and even drop off a meal. 

I feel blessed to be getting treatment from City of Hope and am thankful to be in the hands of great doctors and nurses.