Chemo Part II

On tap for today was my second chemo treatment. This one started off a bit awkward but so far I appear to be doing better than last time. Here is what happened. My first Chemo treatment was at the hospital because the medical oncologist chemo area was booked to capacity. The hospital offers several advantages for chemo in my situation. First it is on the same floor and in the same building as radiation medicine. I was able to just walk over from chemo to the radiation facility when it was time to get treated. Keep in mind it can take 6 plus hours to deliver the chemo that I am getting. The second advantage is that they have public wifi access at the hospital. I was able to bring my notebook and catch up on e-mail, do some work, update the blog etc. Also the facility at the hospital is a bit more roomy, offered more privacy and they had TV's for each station.

So at my first treatment the people at the hospital scheduled me to be there for the second treatment. I was already scheduled to be at the medical oncologist office but we agreed that it would be better if I was there. Last week when we had our appointment with the medical oncologist (who didn't make the appointment, we saw the nurse practitioner instead.) we mentioned that I was scheduled to be at the hospital and why. The nurse practitioner agreed, or at least we thought so.

This morning I showed up at the hospital and they called to check on the meds with the medical oncologist and the medical oncologist decided that they really wanted me at their facility. They really didn't have much of a reason for it other than they wanted to monitor me but they insisted on it. I explained that I used the public wifi for work but the doctor said that wasn't something they could consider. So off I went to the medical oncologist office. They are located in a set of buildings in front of the hospital so it only took a minute or two to get there.

Once there it took awhile to get started. I asked them about the radiation treatment that was scheduled for that day and they really didn't have much of a plan. Fortunately the radiation office is very flexible and they let them move the appointment around. This time the chemo took all of 6 hours to deliver. The last radiation appointment available was 3:30 and I was literally leaving the chemo office at 3:25. Because of the scheduling conflict they offered to drive me over to the radiation office. For the next chemo treatment they do have me scheduled at the hospital. I think they figured out that with the radiation treatments and the length of my chemo it just makes it easier to coordinate.

So far I am not having the same reaction I had last time. This time we are being proactive and taking an additional anti nausea medicine once I got home along with another drug they prescribed when I had the reaction last time. I also think part of it is that I have not eaten as much prior to the chemo. Last time it was my first treatment. In the week before I had had several large meals prior to starting treatment. Kind of a culinary going away party. While tasty it may not have been the best idea. :-)

I will post more tomorrow to update on the progress but so far so good.