Chemo Day 1

Well day 1 consist of just fluids and antibiotics! Which is nice, we kinda get to ease into it. Tomorrow starts actual chemo. Tomorrow she gets cisplatinum, vincristine, and amifostine. Amifostine is some kind of protectant~not a chemotherapy drug. With the vincristine she will have to pee every two hours...that's gonna be tons of fun trying to make her pee that much, haha, oh boy. Tuesday and Wednesday she gets cyclophosphamide and mesna. Mesna is a bladder protectant. It seems that cyclophosphamide is the big one with nausea and tends to make them sick more so than the others (not that the others can't or won't). But in addition to these they also give her medicines that help with all that. I'm not too worried about it, if she does start to feel yucky we'll try some other meds and get her all fixed up! A little nausea now for a lifetime of no cancer is well worth it. Other side effects include hair loss (no biggie...although I am fond of her little whispies) constipation (nothing new for her) diarrhea, blood counts dropping to zero, tired/weak, high blood pressure, increased risk for infections, mouth sores, no appetite...wow, listing them like that sounds terrible, so I'll just stop there. Anyways, she is very lucky to be able to receive her own little blood stem cells back and a drug called gcsf (this happens on Friday and if all goes well, we will get released that day!). This will up her blood counts super fast and have her feeling up to speed in no time! Most of the weakness, infections, etc come from low counts so if that's under control we'll be good. Chemo is chemo, we all know it's very hard but we have to do what we have to do. I'm interested to see how much this actually slows Hayden down...she was supposed to experience extreme fatigue and even low blood counts from radiation. Anyone who knows us knows that did not happen! Lol! We're told to expect lots of transfusions during this time. Also should expect sometime after going home to be put on tpn, a nutritional supplement that goes into her line (this is bc the nausea, potty problems, and mouth sores push eating to the back burner).
So that's what's going on. Hayden is in good spirits and like always has tons of energy! She doesn't mind being in the hospital, she's getting used to it. Can't wait to be done with all this. Hayden is such a tough, brave little girl...we have to stay smiling and positive for her even when it gets hard. Everything is going to turn out perfect when this is over! I just know it!