Chemo Starts

The drive to the hospital that morning was a nervous one, strangely more so than the previous day (when chemo had been delayed 24 hours). To distract ourselves we played ‘I spy’. Of course, this led to conflict as we both “debated” over the rules!!!!

When we arrived we were instructed to go up to the Chemo treatment area. I walked through the door followed by Craig. It is a large clinical room with 8 chemo chairs positioned around the walls. About 6 were occupied by patients. Some had carers with them and some who had a nurse and carer with them.

I stood at the nursing station beside the entrance and waited to introduce myself….and waited….and waited. Getting progressively more anxious and angry, a number of staff walked past and didn’t even acknowledge we were there. After about 5 minutes Craig had to interrupt and introduce us and state that I was there to start my first chemo session.

The Nurse pointed to a free chair and told me to go and sit in it. We sat there for another 20 mins … no one came near us.

As time progressed I was becoming significantly more anxious and agitated and to be honest very cross. Even as I write this I feel myself becoming agitated and very emotional. Just to clarify this for those of you who don’t know me. I am not normally an anxious person, I am a fairly laid back and easy going person. I have spent a large part of my working life in clinical situations and on wards in hospitals and pride myself on my patient care and communication.

Craig went back to the nursing station to ask “what was going on” and state that we had been waiting for 20 minutes with NO further acknowledgement.

EVENTUALLY a nurse came over and politely introduced herself.

At this point emotions spilled over and I started to cry. I was so nervous. I was anxious about what to expect and to be honest I felt so neglected by the staff that morning. It felt as though they were oblivious of how I was feeling and to them it was just another day, but to me … it was so momentous, this was the start of the treatment that is going to SAVE MY LIFE.

Often in jobs in the NHS we become caught up in the routine and forget that this is lifesaving treatment. Each person in those eight chemo chairs is an individual with their own feelings, worries, and asking themselves...... will I survive? If this doesn’t work will I die? Therefore an empathetic and sympathetic approach is vital, a one size fits all approach just doesn’t cut it.

Click here to understand why they are so busy

Up to this point the service we had received from all of the staff in both the surgical clinic and the Oncology clinic had been empathetic and exceptional. I think I felt so let down and disappointed, it was overwhelming.

The nurse reacted to my crying mess by pulling the curtains round and giving us some privacy. She listened to us as we expressed our disappointment and anger at the poor reception we had received. I highlighted that this was my first attendance for Chemo, I had never been in the room before and it was the unknown that was most daunting.

All we wanted was someone to acknowledge us, walk us the 10 metres to the chair and say ‘we are busy today, have a seat someone will be with you very shortly’. Not big demands or requests I don’t think!!! The nurse offered us the opportunity to make a complaint which we declined.

The nurse was brilliant so gentle and kind, she talked us through the chemo sequence. She reviewed all of the drugs with us and it never felt like she was rushing through. 

She inserted a cannula into my very poor veins!!  (I have very inaccessible veins, more of that later) a challenge to her skills!!

The tray of syringes arrived. As we had been warned they were daunting looking. 2 Large red Syringes and 4 other clear syringes  two of each of the three drugs I was to receive. 

She started to slowly inject the first syringe. I was encouraged to keep drinking water throughout this. She kept checking my forearm to ensure the veins were still stable. My forearm began to get extremely cold. Craig felt my arm and said it was ice cold and asked “should it be this way?” The nurse then requested a heat pack, which was positioned on my forearm to help reduce the cold and therefore improve the process of injecting the chemo drugs.

Click on this link for information about the Chemo drug combination

One by one the syringes were injected, six large syringes later and they were done, an IV bag of saline was run through to clear the lines.

Whilst she was injecting the syringes the nurse chatted away to us, which was so important. We gossiped away, she told us about herself and asked about us, this was vital as it acts as a distraction during what is a rather an unpleasant experience. We were also offered a cup of tea which was very much needed with a lovely piece of shortbread, always a bonus!!

The whole chemo delivery process took about 80 mins.

Before we were allowed to leave we had the medications I would need to take over the next 3 days explained to us, a combination of oral steroids and anti-sickness tablets to manage the nausea the Chemo drugs would cause.

I was encouraged to keep drinking water to flush the drugs through my system and also warned that the chemo drugs would make my pee red!!

We drove home and I rested on the settee ........ and then it started……