Zoledronic Acid aka Zometa is a drug given for osteoporosis and also for bone metastasis. Since the two years of Prolia I took didn’t stick, my oncologist recommended zometa – and given that my father had bad osteoporosis (from celiac disease), I wasn’t about to risk it – so I reluctantly agreed.

Friday I had my first treatment. The theory is that I’d get a dose every 6-months for two years and then after that I would no longer need it. I wasn’t looking forward to it – both because it is given my infusion and second because it can have crappy side effects.

As much as I was worried about the infusion and my mental reaction to it, it went off without a hitch. It took about a half hour. I can confirm that just like having a port, when you receive the meds via IV you get a strange taste/smell sensation that comes from inside your body. When the nurse first pushed saline into the IV I was reminded of the familiar taste/smell. The Zometa wasn’t too dissimilar to the saline, perhaps a little more plasticy. I pulled out some mints so I didn’t need to taste it!

Yesterday morning I was feeling OK, and thought that maybe I got away without any negative side effects. Unfortunately, that didn’t last, by mid day I was exhausted and then in the evening I felt feverish. I pulled out a thermometer and discovered I felt feverish because I had a fever! At least i can can confirm that I know by body well enough to recognize when I have a fever.

I pulled out the listed side effects – I knew “flu like symptoms” was a risk, but I wasn’t sure if that included fever. Yes, apparently fever is also a potential side effect. Yesterday evening I was downright miserable.

This morning I still had a fever but not as high as yesterday. Some tylenol seems to be keeping it at bay. I’m feeling a fair bit better now, which is good because we have a lot of work to do to get ready for departure on Friday (or more like Saturday).