Day One is winding down and I’m going down with it. But not in a bad way.
We arrived early and got checked in – like checking into a hotel you don’t want to be at. It all went smoothly – in fact I got the same room (an isolated single room) that I had when I first arrived last year. My phone and PC even reconnected to the wifi without any help from me. We got some info about what was going to happen and approximately when it would happen. Having a catheter port installed, starting treatment that evening, jumpstarting my treatment. Shoulders still tense, but at least the wheels were motion.
Then the nurses came. Two students and a registered nurse, there to measure me, weigh me and stick me. Four needle holes and three cotton balls later they had their blood and I knew that I had gained more weight than I should have. But in hind sight that is a good thing because now I am better prepared to fight my fight and I won’t be quite so scrawny when I’m finished. But I will try not gain quite so much next time, because I’m not planning on doing this again.
Enter the Doctor
A nice guy. Very positive. Starts out by explaining the process … this kind of chemo and that kind of pill combined with this chemo and another type. May and her medical brain sucked it all in while I tried to look like I was understanding, while not drooling on myself. Anyway – bottom line – the big guns are coming out now – Treatment will be kind of the same, but kind of different, combo of pills, shots and chemo – works better than whatever they gave me the first time. (but this treatment isn’t approved for first timers, only us veterans) – All that will be followed up by a transplant – not sure if its a bone marrow transplant or a stem cell transplant (or if there is even a difference between the two) -But a transplant, which should reset me. (This is my understanding of things -if you’d like to know what is really going on, please contact May)
Treatment should be a little shorter than last time, but recovery longer.
But none of it will be starting until tomorrow because today’s timeline was scraped do too scheduling conflicts, so I’ve been reading instead.
So after a week of misery and being on edge I (we) can finally sink the shoulders and exhale. Now I’m tired. It’s pitch black here in Norway by 4:30 pm, so I’m generally ready to go to bed by 7:00 – I might just do that tonight. Barring any further delays, it’s catheters and chemo tomorrow. I’ll let you know.
