Day 2 is in the books.

Drug Regimen:

• Prevacid
• Decadron (steroid for nausea, but sounds like an evil Transformer)
• Emend for nausea
• Zofran for nausea
• Saline drip
• Etoposide and Cisplatin chemo

Nurse: Julia

Side Effects:

• Swelling/bloating
• Minor pins and needles in my right foot on the drive home
• Minor restlessness during the night
• Face is a bit flushed from the steroids

Woke up feeling mostly normal and spent the requisite 1:45 in the car on 290. Found out I gained 5 lbs overnight. I was really counting on chemo as a convenient weight loss plan, but apparently a lot of people actually gain weight. Imagine that. Hopefully it’s just water weight from all the fluids, steroids, and everything else they’re pumping through me. I do consider myself very fortunate that I haven’t experienced any nausea yet. Fingers and toes crossed that continues.

Around mid-afternoon I started to feel incredibly swollen. Like Matthew Perry during his coke-free “Friends” years (I hopped in the Wayback Machine for that reference). My stomach, arms, hands, and legs all felt super tight.

The drive home was mercifully quicker (only an hour fifteen), and the weather was gorgeous, so I spent some quality time in the hammock in my backyard, at least until the mosquitoes discovered me.

Post hammocking, I actually felt well enough to go out to a dinner with my dad and some friends/colleagues, but I could barely get my jeans on due to all the swelling. I did manage to house some rigatoni though.

Pain/Side Effects on Scale of 0 to Mel Gibson’s Final Scene in “Braveheart”:

Day 2 gets another 1. Plenty of energy, no nausea, but bloated and swollen.

Next up, you guessed it, Day 3 (where I am right now, typing this, from the future).