Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Cycle 2, Day 21: The calm before...

Tonight is such a sweet night. The fat full moon is hanging low in the sky. Joe and Laurent are watching something ridiculous on tv and snickering and laughing. Jasper is somewhere in the house, still sleeping off the anesthesia from yesterday's dental cleaning. I am, obviously and as usual, sitting here, catching up on correspondence and counting my blessings. We're all just companionably sitting around, enjoying each other's company, reveling in the ease and comfort of Chemo Eve.

It's a goofy kind of Eve, but I do feel like I've been gearing up for this pause, working like a maniac the last two days so that I can have tomorrow free to be present in the Infusion Lounge, chat with the nurses, take my notes, ask the doctor all of the questions we've been writing down for the past couple of weeks. The process itself is amazing, and long. And now that we've done everything we can do to get ready, I can calmly look ahead to tomorrow, which, if it goes anything like last time, will be like this:

8:30
Arrive, be shown to a room (pretty please, let us not have to share)
Joe gets the prophylactic pre- pre-meds: tylenol (to guard against fever), zofran (nausea)
[I will also be kicking myself that once again I forgot to bring the 2-pound box of See's for the nurses that they so richly deserve. Those women are angels. Angels.]

8:40 - 10:00
More prophylactic pre-meds: Decadron, Benadryl and Pepcid, all to make sure Joe doesn't have an allergic reaction to what’s coming next, my favorite – the genius targeted therapy, Rituxan

10:00 – 12:30
Rituxan – the main event, the specialized treatment developed at Genentech that targets proteins on the exterior of the cancerous white cells and kills the fuckers. It is worth every bit of the $8,000/dose that we're told it costs.

12:35 – 2:30
The Chemo proper – three drugs total: Cytoxin, Adriamycin, Vincristine. I think it's the Adriamycin that's bright red and has to be slowly plunged into the IV by hand, by the nurse.

In between all this, Joe will be making wise-ass remarks and trying to make the nurse laugh [I wonder who our nurse will be tomorrow. Last time our nurse was named Ruthann Lovetang. That's right: Lovetang]. I'll probably run down for coffee at some point, then be around to greet Joe's fans and visitors, run down the pharmacy to pick up drugs, go fetch lunch. I always have the idea that I'll read, but it's all so engrossing, so utterly fascinating, and there's the reality that I have one eye constantly monitoring Joe.

Peaceful right now, just hoping we can hold on to this feeling as long as possible. :)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I hope the day went smoothly and so does the next 3 weeks.
Jamsheed