Friday was Mom's first chemo treatment. I wasn't able
to be there, but Becky gave me the low-down. After
giving her the preliminary meds, they started her on
Taxol (which is derived from the yew bush) and she had
an immediate reaction. The nurse had to stop the Taxol
and give her more benadryl and more steroids. They let
that take effect and then restarted the chemo at a slow
rate. So, by the time they finished the first drug and
then got her through the second it turned into about a
9 hour chemo session.

After pumping her full of benadryl (for a second time),
the nurse (who was terrific) said, "You are going to
get pretty tired now, you are so full of benadryl."

Becky though gave the nurse a heads-up, "You know, my
sister, Laurie, has the opposite reaction to benadryl.
She gets hyper. I'm not sure what Mom's reaction will
be."

Have you ever seen a Chatty Cathy in operation? There
was a living example in the chemo room at Barnes Hosp.
just the other day! Becky said that Mom shared the
gospel, start to finish, with everyone in the room. She
gave testimony, she used the EE questions...she gave
them the whole ball of wax. She was cute!

And in the meantime they discovered that the nurse is a
believer, and the lady getting chemo next to Mom is a
believer too.

So, one treatment down, 5 to go. She starts her radiation
in a week and a half. I think she'll be a sick puppy for
a bit.