Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Another Day, Another Infusion

First, I’d like to thank those that posted comments on the last blog entry... The Truth About Cancer on PBS. I talked to and exchanged emails with a few other people who saw the show, but that didn’t post comments. Everyone thought the show was exceptionally well done and sobering.

I had Round 7 of chemo cycle 9 today. It went quite well. They have called in the special “IV Team” the last two times to get my IV started. This is a group that works with patients who have smaller hard to hit veins. The nurse taking care of me examined my arms for about 20 minutes and then said he felt more comfortable with letting the IV team take a shot. No pun intended. They got my vein on the first try with almost no pain at all. They used a 24 gauge needle which is quite small. Hooray. The infusion was finished in about an hour. I also saw three specialists from the Supportive Care unit. A nutritionist, a psychologist, and a doctor team. They are all phenomenal caring people expert in their respective specialty areas. We discussed in some depth pain/anxiety, pain/anxiety medication, and alternative treatments. For now, we’re sticking with my current pain and anxiety regimen. Lastly, I spoke to my friend in the lab and had a nice catch up. I left the house at noon and was home at 7:00. There was little downtime and it felt productive.

What I’m really excited about though is not having to do this again for 4 whole weeks. That’s the plan and I hope to be sticking to it.

Take care everyone.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ed,
I'm glad you had a good infusion day. I hope the next four weeks are a pleasant break.
Thank you for the tip about the PBS series. It was very interesting and sad.
I agree that a lot about cancer has to do with luck, good and bad.
What are your thoughts on preventing cancer? While I don't believe drug companies are killing treatments that don't benefit them financially, I do wonder why they don't remove from the marketplace some of the chemicals they produce which are known carcinigens.
I realize the whole situation is very complicated. I read about a dinasaur bone which they found to have a large tumor. It seems cancer is not a recent phenomenon.
Thanks,
Clare