So we are now approaching the 24 hour mark since my last bag of chemo from day/dose 1. I found out that this round of chemo isn’t exactly as easy to deal with as I had been lead to believe.
Projected / Explained Schedule:
Total stay in hospital: 5 days
Dosage: Days 1, 3, 5 each get 2 doses
Dose Length: 3 hours per dose
Delay between dosing: 9-12 hours
Actual Dosage Schedule:
Total stay in hospital: 6-7 days
Dosage: Days 1, 3, 5 each get 2 doses – I missed day 1’s morning dose, so it’s actually Day 1 Night, Day 2 morning, Day 3 night, day 4 morning, day 5 night, day 6 morning. >.>
Dose Length: 3 hours of saline hydration before the dose, and 3 hours of saline after the 3 hour dose. So…9 hours.
Delay between dosing: a night’s sleep.
Now, because you, like I was, are probably unaware of the significance of the changes, let me highlight them real quick:
THREE HOURS OF SALINE HYDRATION BEFORE AND AFTER THE DOSE.
Now, it makes sense. They’re putting an incredibly toxic chemical in me, and at a very high dosage level. They want it to get in, kill the cells its supposed to kill, and get the hell outta dodge. They accomplish that by pumping you full of liquids. A whole lot of liquids. 600ccs per dose of hydration.
That’s 2.4 LITERS of liquid. In roughly 24 hours. Now, I know, context is needed here. So, take a gander at this thing:
It’s about 12″ tall.
That’s the thing they gave me to pee in, to measure how much liquid was coming out of me. They did that so they could tell if I was retaining fluids, and therefore, if I was retaining the chemo chemicals.
I peed enough liquid to fill that thing 6 times. In less than 24 hours. Almost 200 oz of liquid. You know how big most camelbaks are? Here’s a *big* camelbak. It’s 100 oz. I peed two of those.
Nobody thought to warn me about this. Nobody told me, oh hey, you’re not connected to the pole for 3 hours, you’re connected for 9.
GOOD LORD. Why does it seem that I’m the only person that cares about what’s going into and out of my genital region in this place? Damn!
Eff Leukemia 
Well damn. That’s quite a bit of liquid to come out of you. I’d be upset about how much I was peeing. Hurt after a while?
wtf, moderation. psh. I remember back in the day when I didn’t have to be moderated by forum masters and I WAS the master! -_-
We have come full circle. Now I am the master.
Also, it’s not that it hurt. It’s just that I was constantly like “Oh, I’m okay….HAVETOPEEHAVETOPEEHAVETOPEE” and sprint to the bathroom. It was always very suddenly upon me.
I swear…there must be a med school class called “Forming Evasive and Vague Responses 101.”
Or just “things that are just not important to anyone except everyone.”
Eff Leukemia
I’m somewhat done the path from you – alloSCT – and at some point it got so that I just could not stand being attached any more. I felt like I was going stir crazy, and worse of course when I counted on x numbers of hours of infusion and, like you, then found that more was always entailed – fluid, flushes etc. I would go to have my magnesium levels checked and then burst into tears when it was found that I had to have a 4 hour infusion of replacement magnesium. I was so over it.
It can get a little disheartening to have things left out of descriptions, but so far, I’m still doing ok. Mentally, I generally just take all of their suggested time amounts, and double or triple them. It’s worked pretty well so far to keep my expectations closer to reality.