I spend about 5 to 6 hours in the chemo unit every three weeks.
It is remarkably boring, as you can imagine.
Fortunately, unlike 5 years ago I do not suffer from any particularly adverse side effects, that is no projectile vomiting, which is nice.
The reason for the length of my visit is because I have 4 different drugs, plus two pre-meds as well as the saline flushes between each infusion.
The chemotherapy drug , docetaxel has to be given for over a period of one hour.
I have to wait about half an hour for the pre-meds to kick in and the other three drugs each take about half an hour. Add to this the waiting for the busy nurses to change between flushing and infusions when the pump goes beep you can see where the time goes albeit very slowly.
Things that I consider essential when visiting the chemo unit.
My husband, or failing that, another "gofer" friend. This is someone to talk to, hold hands with, and more essentially, someone who can get food and drink from the far flung eateries of the hospital.
Newpapers for reading and crosswords etc. and obviously a pen.
A book, even more obviously. Given the amount time I have spent there, you'd think I'd have been able to have read War and Peace backwards and forwards. This is not the case for two reasons, I am a slow reader, as my children will attest, and also doing anything for any length of time is not really very easy with all the comings and goings in the unit.
I would also recommend wearing comfortable clothing. The temperature of the unit and my body fluctuate wildly. I wear a full length zipped fleece which given I have a portacath I can take off completely. This would not be possible if they were using a vein in my arm, but being able to unzip it would help a bit if I were getting hot. In the unlikely event that you get cold they have blankets and heat pads.
The chairs are very comfortable and adjustable so snoozing is also an option.
If you are at the unit long enough, that is over lunchtime, the staff come round and take your sandwich, fruit, drink,crisps and yoghurt order. They also offer tea and coffee. Whilst I do take advantage of the latter I bring my own sandwich as they do not do prawn mayonnaise and I like to think that I am saving the NHS a very little bit of money.
Looking around the unit, there are a few who have a tablet/kindle, (my husband for one), and they are mostly the person accompanying the patient, by and large most people are just sitting there staring into space.
Even with all of these things the time does pass very slowly and when I am finished I leave the unit like a greyhound out of the traps. This might be more attributable to the numerous steroids I have to take rather than the relief of the session being over.
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