First I had to have labs drawn and my white blood cell count which was too low last time, came one number lower than the acceptable number for treatment. So they had to contact the doctor and she had to give approval to treat anyways. My infusion didn’t get started until after 4:00 and they had to start with the premeds first which took a little while since they had to wait for one of them from the pharmacy. When the nurse came in to start the Benadryl premed she commented that they give me a pretty hefty dose of it so she wasn’t surprised that it knocked me out. She actually set the Benadryl to dispense over 5 minutes so it wouldn’t hit me so hard all at once. I think it helped because it took a little longer for me to feel drowsy and it wasn’t quite as bad. I did still have a hard time concentrating for a little while and I had a little bit of difficulty forming some words while I was speaking.
They finally started the carboplatin infusion around 5:15 and it took an hour for the infusion. A little bit after 6:00 I got concerned that the pharmacy had already closed and I needed some medication refills that I had sent in earlier in the day. I sent DH down to get them and luckily they were open until 7:00.
During the carboplatin infusion, the nurse came in to put something called a Neulasta on-body injector on my arm. It is supposed to administer a drug called Neulasta into my body 27 hours after it was put on. The Neulasta is supposed to help boost my immune system so that hopefully my white blood cell counts won’t get so low this time around. The problem with the drug is that it is not supposed to be administered until at least 24 hours after the chemo treatment or it will counteract the chemo drug itself. So normally people would have to go back to the office the day after the chemo treatment to get the drug administered. With this on-body injector, it eliminates the need to return to the office the next day. I had to watch a little promo video on the injector that explained how it worked and the do’s and don’ts while using it. I had the option of having it put on my abdomen or the back of my arm - I chose the back of my left arm. It is bigger than I thought it would be and is totally visible when I am wearing short sleeves. The nurse applied it to the back of my arm and then after 3 minutes it beeped and then you hear a sound like a rubber band snapping and then a probe/needle pokes into my arm. It didn’t hurt too bad. The nurse said that there is a small plastic tube that will stay embedded in my arm until after the injection is complete the next day. At 27 hours, the injector is supposed to beep and then the needle/probe will go back into my arm through the plastic tube and the drug will be administered over a 45 minute period. After that the plastic tube and needle will detract from my arm and then the injector light will blink red and I can remove it from my arm. Until the injector is activated, there is a green light that blinks on it every 5-10 seconds to let you know that it is functioning correctly.
So a funny thing happened last night when I woke up around 3:30 a.m. I went to use the bathroom and take a pain pill and when I went in there I noticed a green light flash out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t think much of it, but when I came out of the bathroom, I saw it again. And then again and again. I kept turning around trying to figure out what was flashing, but it seemed to come from different locations. Finally I thought I narrowed it down to my closet so I went in there and shut the door and I kept seeing it. So I turned on the light and was looking around trying to figure out what was causing the flashing, when it finally dawned on me that it was the injector on the back of my arm! I it threw me off because I was not expecting the light to be such a bright flash! DH got a good laugh out of it when I told him that story this morning!
