Sigh! I was all prepared to be brave and strong. I was prepared to bear the weight of the pain and the discomfort. I am the slayer. The evil infiltrator would throw me all it had and I would fight to the death. Its death. Grrrrhhhh! It was the most boring day I have had in a long time. But I jump ahead. First the day began.I jumped out of bed at 6 a.m. after a very sleepless night. I was ordered to take decadron which is supposed to help against nausea. It also makes it impossible to sleep. I had taken a dose (2 tablets) Tuesday as soon as I got it from the pharmacy and again before I went to sleep. Then an hour before chemo started. So I took 2 tablets each time as ordered. And so there was no nausea all day. But there was also no sleep at night. But that was okay. That made it easier to sleep during chemo, I guess. I had a good breakfast, Crunchy Raisin Bran with blueberry active yogurt. My favorite breakfast right now. Then Metamucil in 8 ounces of water and all my vitamins. I'm now an official member of the "old people's too many pills club". Very discouraging. I folded clean clothes and finished some other work and at 8:30 we went down to Kaiser. We checked in at the Oncology department and waited until about 9:15. I was then escorted into the inner sanctum of the infusion clinic. It was described as almost labyrinth like but I was a bird in a past life and it seemed simple enough to navigate. I was again weighed and blood pressure checked. Also had my temperature taken. My blood pressure had dropped almost 15 points since the day before. Andy attributed it to my not having to see a doctor as on the day before. I think it was more that there were just fewer hoops to jump through and I was feeling relieved that chemo was really starting. What I think of as my normal blood pressure is about 111/80. Today it started at 107/73 and dropped after chemo started to 104/70. Those drugs really do a number on one's body. The chemo nurse, Kari, brought us into a long narrowish room with probably 15 or twenty chemo chairs and all kinds of machines and IV equipment surrounding each chair. There were a number of people already settled in and getting their treatments. One really elderly lady was getting a whole blood transfusion. She really looked frail and I felt for her. But once the transfusion started she fell asleep. It didn't seem to bother her at all. Oh, and each chair had its own TV. I didn't use mine. I was too well entertained by my crew. The chemo nurse was a dear. I really liked her, but, who have I not liked through this journey? Everyone is so wonderfully kind. Anyway, Kari did the measuring and brought out all the chemo drugs and described what might happen with the side effects and what their intended results were. How many times have I heard this? The only new thing I think I heard over the last two days is that after using the toilet I must flush twice to make sure the chemo drugs are completely carried away! At one point another nurse came over to verify that I really was who I said I was, what my birthday was, what my Kaiser number was and what the various meds I was taking were. They had to do some extra steps because I was in a trial. Then they went through the list and checked them against the bags of liquid that my nurse had procured for me. There was a bit of excitement when the checking nurse asked me about the decadron. I told her I had taken it twice Tuesday and once this a.m. She thought I meant I had taken only one each time but I assured her I meant 1 dose/2 tablets. When everything was okayed, my nurse started a saline drip and then some benadryl. When the benadryl was finished we moved on to the first chemo drug, Docetaxel. After that was finished we started the Carboplatin. That was followed by the Trastuzumab which is not a chemo drug but a targeted therapy which gets at the HER2-positive breast cancer. Because I have this type of cancer I was chosen to participate in the clinical trials. The treatment this first time lasted from about 9:45 until 2:15. They say it won't take as long next time. After I started getting the benadryl I just dozed off and on for the rest of the treatment. When I woke up I would have some string cheese or crackers and a juice, watch a little of the Librarian on my iPOD and then fall asleep again. No nasty side effects, no terrors. When I told the nurse that I hadn't slept well the night before, she attributed it to my anxiety. I told her I had no anxiety, I was just excited and didn't the decadron do that. She was amused. I did confess my neck was a little sore and stiff yesterday afternoon which I believe was a little tension building up. But I lay down and listened to my guided imagery tape for chemotherapy and it just melted away.So, that was my day. When we were finished I went home and watched a little TV, slept and caught up on my emails. I'm feeling fine, just a little tired. Having taken the decadron as directed, again, I assume I won't sleep well again tonight but who knows? Maybe I will. I hope I'm not being too cavalier about how my body is responding to this treatment. If I feel ill tomorrow I'm going to be terribly embarrassed. We'll see what happens. Hugs to everyone again for all the encouragement. I know it helps.