Blog post written by teen Amy, from her blog http://fromfightertosurvivor.blogspot.co.uk/
"I was thinking that some of you may not actually know what happens when you go to receive the infusion of chemotherapy or what its like, so I thought I would hopefully shed a little light!
The room itself is basically a massive room split into 3 sections with a little side room. The rooms are filled with snazzy green armchairs each with a pump next to the chair. The sections are called bays, and 2 or 3 nurses are in charge of the 6 or so patients in that bay. The little side room has a TV in it and a bed like they have at the doctors surgery.
On the day you sign it at reception and go down to Room 10 (chemo room)the nurses tell you which bay you're in and then you wait, sometimes for 10 minutes sometimes for 5 hours! The room has volunteers who make tea and coffee, lunches and even massages so there is ways to pass the time while you're waiting.
The chemo its self is given through a vein, so will either use a line, post or a cannula. They always run a bag of saline along with the chemo too. Depending on the chemo you have will depend on pre meds. For the ABVD I had bags on anti sickness before the chemo could start and the same with the ICE, for this current chemo they literally go straight for the drug, there is no pre meds.
The timing chemo takes depends again on the chemo you receive, ABVD took around 5 hours and was done as an outpatient in the chemo room, ICE was give over 5 days as an inpatient on the ward, and Brent is given over 30 minutes as an outpatient.
The nurses are fab and check on you every 5 minutes and do their best to stop any side effect or anxiety and make you as comfy as possible for the duration of time you're there.
After the infusion, you more than often have to wait for pharmacy to give you the meds to take at home after chemo, and book yourself in for bloods, clinics and the next round of chemo!
It isn't a particularly nice thing to have to do but as chemo goes on you really do get used to it and becomes part of your new life!"
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