For my chemo buddies

So I feel the need to post for those who are interested in what is going to happen in their future or their loved ones future as they start into chemo.  I know that chemo is different to everyone but many of the posts I read were right on target for me so here is how it started off for me. 
Great nurses make for a great place to get your treatment.  The Duke Med facility was very nice.  The wait to get things going was pretty long because well you just can't time exactly how long it will take for someone to get all their meds in and you wouldn't want to push that time table.  The process was rather simple to start, the nurse went over the drugs that I would receive and we made sure that each medication was what I was expecting and matched my name and patient id.  The treatment I will be getting is ABVD and is going through IV.  I don't have a port or a PICC or a Hickman's just an everyday IV.  I didn't find this first process to be too painful.  There was pain in my arm at one point and the nurse slowed down the process and got me a warm beanie to lay on my arm.  The warm beanie is your friend and slow is slowing down the process if things get painful.  After I find out on Thursday how many more of these treatments I may have I might be pushing for a port.  And the reason for that is for me although at the time of treatment things felt fine.  A few days later I started to develop pain in my veins.  It started as a tingle and then a burn and later into an almost sharp pain.  At this point it is no longer a constant pain but my arm still feels achy.  So from the posts I have read the port is the way to go if you are having a large number of treatments so I wait for Thursday to see how many we are looking at.  I will let you know how that goes.  As for the time after the treatment.  I didn't feel bad after the treatment we made it home and I took my meds and talked for a while and then when the drugs kicked in I went to sleep.  The next few days I spent trying to get the timing of taking the meds down and figuring out what pains meant.  Is that I feel sick to my stomach or I'm hungry and need to eat or heartburn.  It took me awhile to work those things out.  When in doubt medication is your friend.  The nurses told me it was best to stay on top of your nausea.  Several sites mentioned mouth sores and staying on top of that.  I found that swishing salt water worked but the thing I found to help the most were ice cold smoothies.  The coldness really helped out.  Also, you can add so many things in a smoothie when you are not feeling up to eating a regular meal.  I am not sure what I would have done without the smoothie and the baked potato.  Great stuff.  It took me until about 6 or 7 days to feel normal again.  I felt pretty good most mornings but for some reason shortly after lunch things would go down hill.  By the time I made it home from work I was beat.
I am hoping that the second go around which is this Friday will go easier with the knowledge gained so far but we shall see.