Round 1

Monday was a busy day. It was my first day of chemotherapy and I was at the hospital for 11 hours! Way longer than I expected. I started at 8 a.m. with a blood draw on the 7th floor. They took 11 tubes of my blood – some for the regular blood panels and 8 extras because I’m participating in a study. Then it was down to the 3rd floor to Interventional Radiology for the port insertion, surgery performed under radiology imagery, using a local anesthesia and what is called conscious sedation. I was lucid throughout but relaxed, and I didn’t feel much as they put a quarter-sized drum, the port, under the skin of my chest and threaded a catheter between it and my jugular vein. With a port they can easily draw blood and infuse chemotherapy drugs without having to stick different veins each time. 

When I was finished there, it was back up to the 7th floor, where I met with my medical oncologist at 11:30 and then signed in across the hall at the cancer treatment center at 12:30. After a tour of the facility, we (my trusty best friend and I) sat through a 30-minute orientation before being shown to the “pod” where I was to get my chemo. The pod consists of 8 or so big reclining chairs and a couple of beds, where patients get their infusions. Clinical, but comfortable enough.

What I didn't expect was to get a 2 p.m. start on a chemo scheduled for 12:30. Next time there won’t be an orientation, and now I know to expect that the four and a half hour chemo infusion involves some additional front end time for the preparation of the medications, especially considering the astounding volume of patients they see on a daily basis. Although the chemo took a long time, it was not painful or disturbing in any way. Throughout the treatment, two nurses attend to the eight patients in the pod and are kept very busy. There are additional assistants and all of them gladly provide warm blankets, snacks and drinks as needed. One of the infusions had a good dose of Benadryl in it, so I spent a good bit of the time dozing blissfully. As the afternoon wore on, one after another of my pod mates finished up and left the area. Finally, a little after 7 p.m., we were the last to leave our pod and headed on our merry way, no worse for wear. Below is a view from the 7th floor in the late afternoon.