L arrived at the Dr's office about 7:30am, his appt was for 8:00am. He always likes to get someplace extremely early.....not me! That's a waste of valuable time that could be spent at home, in my opinion.
Anyway, the office opened at 8:00 sharp and L checked in along with , maybe 5 other people. I got there about 5 min after 8:00 and he was sitting in the waiting room. He already wasn't feeling too well. His neck and those horrible beast knots are hurting him so much! One after the other, all 5 of the early patients were called back behind "THE DOOR". New people started arriving and checking in and then going back.
Ok, now wait just a darn minute....LD won't say anything, so I got up and politely asked the nice ladies behind the desk, when did she think we would be called for our 8:00am appointment. She was very nice, I'm not being sarcastic (this time).
She apologized for our wait and said that they were waiting on Dr's orders for L's treatment.
I'm sorry....what????
You're waiting on Dr's orders for L's treatment for Today?..........as in, today....today??
This same appopintment that Dr. Jasani personally made himself last Friday when we were in here?
(I really didn't say all of that to her, but I sure was thinking it!)
The nice lady said she would see what was going on and let us know.
The clock keeps ticking away and the second wave of new people have arrived AND gone behind "THE DOOR". We were alone in the waiting room, once again.It's about 9:30 now, I have to leave to pick up my precious granddaughter and take her to gymnastics.
This is crazy!
I always heard that chemo patients never had to wait....long. I wanted to be in there for L when he started, leave for a little bit and then be back for the rest of the day.
Well, here comes the nice lady from behind the desk. She said the orders for treatment finally came and she was personally going to take them, to whoever needed to have them and it wouldn't be much longer now. I said my see ya laters and left.
L said that he finally got called back about 10:00, a nurse took him to his private room behind the curtain and got him situated. And he waits........
Now, treatment can't start yet because "they" need some kind of addendum to the first order for his port. The port was not put in where the first order said it was going to be, so the chemo people need an addendum.
I didn't think that MD Anderson was part of the government??? Oh wait!!!
Yes they are, kind of...only worse....it's the state. Anderson is a part of University of Texas. How could I forget??
I used to work for them....I was the Front Office Manager at Anderson Mayfair Hotel that used to be across from MD Anderson's main building (it's torn down now and a new hotel built). It's was where all of the out of town cancer patients stayed when they came for treatments. So many rules and so much paperwork!! If I wanted to buy pencils, for example, I had 10 different forms that had to be filled out, before I could purchase them. All of this addendum and orders nonsense is NOW, starting to make perfect sense.
Getting back to the port.
The first "order" stated that the port would be inserted into his chest on the right side about 3 inches down from his collar bone. I believe instead of 3 inches, it was 5 inches. So there you have it!! We must have an addendum for 2 whole inches!Dr. Jasani came in to see L, while everyone was waiting on, who knows who, to fill out that damnation of an addendum and asked if he wanted to change his treatment to Monday.
Now he asks??
No sir, I'm already here and in the chair. I will wait.
So, I think the actual treatment started about Noon. From about 11:00 to Noon, non medicated fluids were going in.
I got back about 11:45 right before the harsh drugs were administered. Nurse Carol was checking on the IV drip and L was watching tv.
Before the Cisplatin infusion, extra IV fluids are given, care is taken to ensure adequate hydration before, during and after Cisplatin, to protect the kidney's function. The next drug will be Docetaxel. And the drug that will be in the pump that he wears home for 4 days is Fluorouracil.
I have to tell you, I was not happy with our conversation at all. She didn't tell me anything that I haven't already read in the last 3 weeks and then couldn't answer my questions about which foods were more beneficial to a person with on chemo.Very disapointing conversation....
I might be wrong, just gonna throw this out there...
It's my opinion and I'm just now realizing that these doctors and cancer facilities might not want to encourage patients to eat the proper fruits and vegetables that will help to kick this Oropharyngeal cancer's a$$.
I sorta baited Dr. Jasani the other day asking which vegetables were good for helping the liver out during chemo. He said none that he knew of. Wrong answer Doc!
For the record: I still believe that MD Anderson is the best cancer fighting facility in the country...possibly world.
But, I believe that proper nutrition is also needed to keep the body alive and well before, during and after cancer treatments, but especially during chemo. The drugs that are given during chemo cannot tell the difference in normal cells and cancer cells, so therefore destroys all cells.
I will talk about my research and findings about nutrtion at another time....I got off on a tangent and didn't mean to.
L's chemo lasted today until 4:00pm, that a long day for someone not feeling well!! They unhooked him from the big IV and hooked his pump up through his port and away he went, heading home.
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