Chemo Round 2

First day of round 2 of chemo...Lisa is doing good. It was a lonnnnnnnnggggg morning. Had to be here at 8:10 for blood draw...got here at 8:15 (pretty darn good for the "I hate mornings" parent).



Had a hard time getting the blood flowing. The tech was getting a little frustrated and finally called in a different person to take over. Lisa must have moved just the the right way with the second tech cause after a few jiggles the blood started flowing.



Got out of there and checked in for 9:15 appt with doc prior to 9:30 chemo. We WAITED OVER 45 MINUTES before doc came in. This is pretty unusual for U/M. You know me though...I was calm, cool and collected...hahahahahahahahahahaha (I crack myself up!)



Seriously...we were waiting so long, the infusion nurse came looking for us to get Lisa started on her hydration while we waited for doctor. Doctor finally came. He did the preliminary checks and Q&A and then said he would update the attending and they would be right back. OMG...it was another 45 minutes. While the doctor was extremely competent, I have no idea why we were waiting in a boring exam room when the infusion room was just around the corner. They finally came in and we discussed the ongoing urinary tract infection and the skin rash she is getting from her bandages. The doctor also reminded me how things were going to start (?!) getting pretty chaotic next week. Besides the chemo side-effects and blood counts, Lisa will be going back and forth for a number of scans, MRIs and other tests to see if the chemo is working in the next two weeks. She will also be having bone marrow collection started soon---ugh. Trying to schedule all these appts in a 2 week window is proving to be a challenge. However, the doctor said if she spikes a fever or gets an infection, they can admit her and just do the tests then. I'm pretty sure he wanted me to think this was a good thing, somehow I can't quite embrace this logic.

We finally got into the infusion room around 11:45. The nurses were waiting for us and had saved a big chair. Thank goodness. Lisa did great and spent most of the day playing and even told me to go away so she could play with one of the child life specialists.

The doctors came to update me on their discussion and determined they wanted to get a urine sample from Lisa through a catheter. Nice....that was a lot of fun. The nurses said she did a great job for a kid her age...it was hard for me to tell, seemed like a lot of yelling going on. Although when they were done getting the sample, Lisa hit the nurse with urine, so I figure she gets extra credit for aim.

We finished up around 4:30 and we're home by 5, not bad for a chemo round.

After this week, if everything is on track and testing goes okay in the next two weeks she will start her third round of chemo. That round will be done as inpatient for 3-4 days..can you say yahoo!! Mike and I get to pretend we're camping as we sleep on a tiny cot next to Lisa's big comfy, adjustable hospital bed. Good thing we're both so adventurous!!;)