Cancer juice

Rituximab and Bendamustine will be my cancer fighting juices for the next 6 months. Such serious names right?! They should definitely be renamed something much cooler. So Rituximab is a monoclonal antibody, or immunotherapy treatment. It works by teaching my body's immune system to recognise those sly cancer cells to then attack and destroy!! Cool huh. Then Bendamustine is your regular chemotherapy drug and comes in to do the clean up work, literally destroying everything in its path, including my lovely healthy cells. But I guess as long as its destroying the cancer i'll let that part slide.

Something i've discovered throughout the multitude of tests i've had to go through was that my veins can be incredibly wimpy. As soon as they become aware of a needle coming for them they shy away and today was no exception. No matter what I do my veins just won't co-operate, they don't want to play this cancer game and quite frankly I don't blame them. But i'm now on my third nurse in an attempt to get a needle in to start the treatment and i'm starting to become a tad squeamish and embarrassed at the fuss this is causing. But hallelujah, third time lucky, I'm going to call her the vein whisperer.

To ensure i'm sufficiently distracted for the day my friends skived off work to keep me entertained. My friends provide me with that sense of normality in my very confusing new world. And even though i'm sat in a hospital ward, attached to an IV with poison pouring through my body, the cancer is temporarily forgotten and the fear is gone. Instead the room is filled with hysterical laughter, its talk of what takeaway they can sneak in and how we can replace the fluid in the IV bag with wine. Sure, chemo day is bloody scary but having your best friends there making you laugh until you wee, makes it a damn lot easier!

Pumping the drugs in!!

My new friend for the next 6months