We did the first chemo treatment today.

We were at the cancer center for 5 hours

First they gave Bevacizumab ( Wikipedia ), which is a monoclonal, so not really chemo. She took that for about 30 minutes with saline. It works by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels which kinda works by choking the cancer from being able to grow

Then they gave her some anti-nausea (Zofran) and a steroid to prep for the next drug. They also gave some IV vitamins that help activate the first drug.

Then they started the Oxaliplatin ( Wikipedia ) with Leucovorin – this is another drug that has the job of trying to disrupt the way that cancer cells grow and multiply. The Oxaliplatin is the one that has some strange cold sensation things with it. Where she will have to wear gloves when handling cold things, not drink cold liquid and will have sensitivity problems in general with anything cold.

Right before leaving they gave us a “kicker” of Fluorouracil ( Wikipedia ) – also known as “5-FU” (which makes me giggle to say) – which will then continue to be administered via a portable pump that we take home with us – it’s done this way as they’ve found that it does best when administered over 48 hours, so it pumps a little in every hour. We have to go back to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon to have them take the pump back and remove the line from her port. The Flourouracil messes with the ways that cells make and repair DNA to (hopefully) screw up the way that the cancer makes and replicates itself.

Our conversation with the doctor on Friday was pretty normal, other than conceding that the cancer is terminal, it sounds like timelines are hard to nail down until we get through a first chemo regimen (3 months) and we can see her cancer is reacting to the treatments.