Hi all. Short entry for a short day. I went for an hour-long walk through Georgetown yesterday afternoon after my first session, the better to let traffic thin out. Then back to Jim and Elena's, where I had a bowl of Elena's fabulous homemade veggie soup. Slept like a baby last night. Made it to Georgetown University Hospital (henceforth GUH) by 7:00 this morning. Took about a half-hour walk through the neighborhood. Here's a tidbit for you: the French embassy is situated immediately across from the Georgetown campus.
By 8:30 I was up on the seventh floor again, this time in Room 11. This was more a "semi-private" room with three chairs and no bed. You only get the room with the bed when you're going to be there all day, and such was not the case for me.
Jamela came in and check out my IV line. I met Mary Ellen, my nurse de jour, who was very friendly and very competent. Also met Cliff B., a gentleman with a different flavor of lymphoma than mine who is on his second round of chemo. His first pass was with CHOP, which is a very powerful chemo regime--like "lose your hair" strong. His lymphoma reappeared after a six-month remission, and Dr. Cheson brought him into a clinical trial. At Cliff's last CT scan, he was symptom-free. He was in today just for blood work. Good luck to you, Cliff.
My fludarabine showed up at 9:20 and was infused by 9:40. Mary Ellen wrapped up my IV port (which stays in my arm through tomorrow's session) and I was on the road to Pax by 10:05.
I'm including a picture of yesterday's comfy blue chair for posterity and your viewing pleasure.
Tim,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear you've started and are doing well. You didn't mention any major side effects, I hope that's accurate and you're tolerating it all well. My grandfather had lung cancer in the 80's and the chemo was really hard on him. I hope they've got it all balanced out for you. Best of luck.
Jason