One long day!!!

I knew it was going to be a long day, but when I got up at 5:45 in the morning, I had no idea just how long!  I was picked up at 6:30 by the transportation company to get me to the cancer center by 7:15 and half way there there was the sound of a tire going flat.  The driver kept going until we got to the freeway exit and got to a parking lot.  By that time, the tire was totally gone!  They brought another car to get me the rest of the way to the cancer center (even though I was only a block away) and I still got there before 7am.  Fortunately, the doors were open.  I had to wait for the people to open the check-in desk, but at least I was dry and warm. 

I got up to the infusion unit and waited...and waited...and waited...after about 8am, the nurse came in and said they would be moving me to the hospital because there was no way that the treatment could be completed in the time that the center would be open.  So I went down and got a voucher from social services for the transfer and went to the hospital.  That was not a very comfortable place.  I didn't know any of the staff and I was used to the way things were at the cancer center.  Once again I waited...and I waited...and I had to wait for the orders to get transmitted to the hospital and the orders to be filled.  It was almost noon before they even started the pre-meds!  At least I did get two hot meals out of the ordeal.

Things wen pretty smoothly once it got started.  The beginning part was the same as always...pre-meds, avistan, taxol (about 4-5 hours there).  Then they had to do another round of pre-meds to make sure that I didn't react to the carbo.  That was where the time started changing.  They had it divided into four bags.  The first bag had .056% of the drug that was infused over an hour.  The second bag had .56% infused over another hour.  The third bag had 5.6% infused over an hour and the fourth bag had 56% infused over 3 hours!  It was after 2am before they finished with me so they let me sleep for a couple of hours and I went home at 6am (a full 24 hours after I left home!!!). 

I talked to the study coordinator to see what the schedule will be the rest of the time and she told me that they would be doing the desensitization for the rest of the treatments.  But she said that they would be done at a different location because she was not pleased with the way they handled things at that hospital.  She will be giving me all information when I go in on Wednesday for labs.  At least that will still be done at the cancer center even though I will be going to the hospital for actual treatments.  I just hope that it goes better next time than it did this time!!!