Am I about to turn a corner? I really don’t know, but the experiment to test whether I will benefit from receiving additional IV fluids during the week after a chemotherapy session is now officially underway.

Following the previous chemo session, I was knocked out of commission for most of the next two weeks. This little fluid experiment is a test to see whether addressing apparent dehydration will reduce side effects.

It began at the end of a 5-1/2 hour chemotherapy session on Friday, September 25, which ends with a one-hour IV infusion of fluid that starts the process of washing excess chemo drugs out of my system.

Early Saturday morning, I caught an Uber to the infusion center at Queen’s Hospital in downtown Honolulu for another 1-hour fluid infusion. I have selected to have my chemotherapy at the small Cancer Clinic Queen’s operates in the medical office building adjacent to Kuakini Hospital, but it’s not open for business on weekends.

I was leery about having this done at the main Queen’s infusion center, but my experience was quite good, at least at that early weekend hour. It is about twice the size of the Kuakini clinic, which has only six chairs where patients sit while receiving infusions. The larger Queen’s Hospital center offers six beds for those who will be there for an hour or more, and another five chairs (if I recall correctly) for short-timers.

After arrival, I was shown around a corner to the last cubicle. It had a standard hospital bed capable of all kinds of contortions, a rack holding a bag of saline solution waiting for me, and a couple of pumps to control the drip. My nurse was pleasant, helpful, and efficient. No complaints there. Being able to stretch out on the bed was a different experience than leaning back in the chair at Kuakini, but unfortunately it didn’t make the time pass any more quickly.

So that was Saturday. Monday afternoon I returned to Kuakini for another round of fluid. It times out at almost exactly 1-hour from start to finish, plus a couple of minutes to flush the connection to the chest port, remove the various bits of chemo paraphernalia, button my shirt, test my sea legs, pick up my cane, and get on my way.

To be honest, I didn’t experience a quick pick-me-up, but then I remember that two weeks ago, a few days after the prior infusion, I was in bed, too exhausted and dizzy to do much of anything. And that went on for a full week.

Although I’m still dizzy, and having to take extra care moving around the house, this week is a definite improvement. And I’ll do one more fluid session on Thursday afternoon to see if it can extend this winning streak.

I’m still making sense of my experience, and have identified several factors that can vary independently of each other.

Appetite. Some days I have zero appetite, and food is almost aversive. Other days, I can eat a small meal, although it does require extra effort.

Dizziness or lightheadedness. Sometimes when I get up the world starts spinning. It’s something that comes and goes.

Chemo brain, or what I’ve been calling brain fog. It feels like I need to just wipe some cobwebs aside in order to function close to normally.

Constipation. A constant threat that is a known side-effect of at least two of the drugs used during chemotherapy to prevent nausea.

Exhaustion. Some days I have a bit of energy, mental and physical, while on other days I’m just exhausted from the time I awake and eventually have to give in and go back to bed.

I don’t know if identifying these different factors will help me understand how I’m doing on a given day, but hopefully at least naming them gives me something more to work with.

So I’m not ready to declare the experiment a success. There are too many moving parts, and I’m only a few days into it.

But compared with where I was at this point two weeks ago, I’ll take it.