Mama's First Chemotherapy Cycle

When my mother's oncologist described how the chemotherapy will go, he mentioned Mama just sitting there in a lazy boy, watching TV with an I.V. drip. He wasn't kidding. The TV even had cable channels.

It went faster and smoother that my own first pulsing treatement, really. Much much faster. We were there at the Cancer Center Chemotherapy Unit by 9 o'clock in the morning. Mama was discharged at 11:30 A.M. It would've probably been earlier had I stayed by her side the whole time. I only found out that the session was finished when the companion of the cancerite who shared the chemo room with my mother went looking for me. So my plans to lounge around Starbucks with my Freakonomics book got derailed. A bit dazed and surprised at the pace of the whole session, we went to the mall to have lunch. My mother already wore the face mask I insisted she wear. I'm not a stranger to having low immune system due to chemo sessions.

My mother does not seem to show the commonplace after-effects though. No nausea nor vomiting. There's some lack of appetite but not really that grave. No falling hair yet either. Good signs really. I hope they last, because this is just the first of twelve cycles.