The battle begins

The day we have been waiting for has arrived. It feels strange to say we were excited to start chemo, but it's true. Until 11:30 this morning, we were just passengers along for the ride. Now Chris has the chance to fight his cancer head on. (If you ask him, he will tell you he already beat cancer once.... The so-called burned out cancer cells that they found after surgery are proof positive that his body is able to put up a hell of a fight!).   We got off to a rocky start. We were told that the orders for chemo had never been written and therefore no per-authorization was obtained. The chemo nurse educator politely told us that Chris would need to wait until Wednesday to start. I was thankfully absent from this conversation or I am convinced that I would have caused a major scene, lots of tears included. Chris, also very politely, told the nurse that this is not acceptable and we need to start today. I believe he told her that if she couldn't make it happen, SHE would have to be the one to tell me!  So, Yvette worked her magic and Chris officially began his treatments at 11:30.  This first week of treatments is intense- 5 days a week x 7 hours, plus a shot on Saturday that will promote increased white blood cell production. The second two weeks of this first cycle(each cycle is 3 weeks. Chris will have 3 cycles of chemo) is just 1 quick shot of one of the meds. This shot only takes about 5 minutes.

 This first day of treatment is drawing to an end... Only about an hour left. Chris is the only patient left for the day.  It's been a long one, but Chris is so far unaffected and is feeling great. He worked all day in his "office" and made lots of new friends:)

Please bear with me as I get used to writing this blog. Chris pushed me to do this and I'm a little uncomfortable with the whole blog concept. Hopefully it allows you all to feel more connected to his journey.
Katie