The Night Before Chemo...Pilule Play

                               

Earlier today, most of the Washington DC metro area was draped in a moist layer of rich white frosting...a few inches of snowflakes...a cleansing ivory intensity. After school, the kids donned their snow pants and headed for the park while I was left to untangle a cipher of side-effects.  

Chemotherapy is the main medical entree, but I forgot about the canapé. My introduction to the prophylactic aperitifs was visceral. As I read the lists of instructions, side-effects, precautions, and drug interactions, gentle waves of nausea lapped at my concentration. Ironically, two of the three medications prescribed purport to soothe the feeling of sea sickness.  

Anzemet®, the pharmaceutical stage name for Dolasetron - anti-nausea medication, rolls of my tongue...Anzemet. The incantation seems to conjure philological cadences of long ago, Ottoman utterances perhaps. Yet, there is nothing imperial about this errant eponym. I wonder about the pharmaceutical hand that delivered this moniker. Anzemet...a linguistic C-section of sorts...a deliberate incision made into a dictionary, a vocabulary, a travel experience, or perhaps a memory. Anzemet, a sterile sound scarred by a routine (outpatient) phonetic operation. 100 mg. Take one tablet daily for four (4) days, start the day after chemotherapy.

Prochlorperazine, another anti-nausea pill, is the generic version of Compazine®. Two anti-nausea pills...apparently these two pellets prescribed to Daniela share an affinity with teenage girls and like to go to the bathroom in pairs. 10 mg. Take one tablet every six (6) hours as needed.

Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid, a.k.a. Decadron® and Hexadrol®, prescribed to counter some of the effects of Docetaxel, half of Daniela's chemo cocktail. 4 mg. Take two (2) tablets daily for three (3) days, start one (1) day prior to Docetaxel.

Mensch ägere dich nicht....a tranquilizing board game.