Gobbledygook

Something that I’ve wondered a lot lately, is why medical terminology is so complicated. It’s overwhelming enough just to be told you have a serious illness let alone trying to decipher what they’ve said. Why can’t they use monosyllabic words instead of so much gobbledygook? People ask me questions about my diagnosis and treatment and when I respond they look at me as though I’m speaking another language. I’m therefore learning to respond with the simpler versions. For example my diagnosis is Mediastinal Large B-Cell Lymphoma, the simpler version being Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, simpler version again is Cancer. Mediastinal, means it's in my chest. The same applies to my treatment. I’m having a combination of five drugs which are Rituximab, Cyclophosphamide, Doxorubicin, Vincristine and Prednisolone. Also known by the simpler acronym: R CHOP 21. It's easier for me to say to people that it's Chemo.

So that brings me to my first chemo session. The word 'chemo' conjures up images of hair loss, dark circles around eyes, weakness, sickness and the list goes on.After all it is a treatment designed to kill your body's cells. But for some strange reason I wasn't that scared. Perhaps it was because I know this has to happen to make me better, perhaps because I’m lucky enough to have so much support, perhaps because I’m so scared of the cannula being inserted into my vein it is overshadowing the fear of the chemo!

So I dosed myself up on Lorazepam for my needle anxiety and headed to the hospital. I swallowed a bunch of tablets (can’t remember what they were. Steroids and anti-nausea I think), then was hooked up to the IV tube. The first drug, Rituximab can cause a variety of serious allergic reactions, so is given very slowly the first time while you are closely monitored. For the four bags of poison to be pumped into me took about 7 and a half hours. Thankfully, all went well and I had no reactions/side effects from any of the drugs.

Overall the day was fine and I even had a few nice experiences. First of all, my nurse was great. She was very friendly, reassuring and attentive. She was also very patient with my lorazepam-induced daze. Although I knew that my mind was cloudy and I wasn’t speaking very clearly I persisted in trying to ask her questions and trying to chat!

I also have six ‘chemo packs’ that my friend Melanie made for me. I have one for each treatment and I’m only allowed to open them at the hospital. The first one contained lots of nice things to read and do during the long ordeal and to distract me from the needles! My dad also bought me a Nintendo Dsi with a brain training game, and that along with movies on my laptop helped pass much of the time.

I left the hospital thinking I couldn’t possibly be feeling this good after having bags of poison pumped through my body and perhaps the bags had accidentally just contained water. I also left with a bunch of brochures on side effects, wig shops and lists of do’s and don’ts. I have new rules to wash my hands before I eat or touch my face, since my immune system will be virtually non-existent for a while.

I slept like a log that night (probably due to the lorazepam) and woke up feeling pretty good. I felt alright all day Saturday, but because of the steroids which I have to take for 5 days after each treatment, I couldn’t get to sleep properly that night. I felt a queasy all day Sunday, but found that if I ate small amounts regularly I was fine. Apart from being really thirsty I’ve really had no side-effects so far. I’m not holding my breath for this to be true after all my treatments, but I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.