"The drugs are (not so) quick..."

Well, I had my first clinic appointment with Dr. Baer on Monday, 9:30 in the AM in Buffalo. So early, diane and I drove up to ithaca the day before, stopping to see Mike and Kathy Malloy as well as the entire Travis Family, which was great to do! I think my niece and nephew Megan and Nathan were a little bit wierded out by seeing me, which I totally understand. If I was 5 and remembered last seeing my uncle 20 pounds heavier with a full curly head of hair, I would be wierded out when this masked skinny bald guy showed up to say hi!
Anyhow, Di and I woke up in Buffalo after a very comfortable evening in the Dream Room at Kevin Guest Guest house. The Dream Room is a plush, newly furnished room with a fantastic pillow-topped queen-sized bed, new furnishings, a well matched decor and DREAM inscribed in brass letters above the bed. Slept so well it was tough to get up in the morning! We walked over to the hospital, through the beautful gardens and walked up the information desk, where we were given our first batch of misinformation. The nervous-looking information guy said we should get right in line across the room, get our blood taken and not to wait a minute if we were smart. We did the usual thing--ignored him--and headed upstairs to the cafeteria, where I had a fantastic cheese omelet (I'd bet there were 5 eggs in it) and crispy bacon and toast, plus some OJ. Finally headed downstairs and got in line for the clinic, where we were sent over to the Hematology/oncology section. They then ordered blood tests for me, and sent me over for about 12 blood tests.
This is where the wierdness started. I sat town with the phlebotomist--they let me right in--and I got my line out for her to take my blood from one of the lumens. Heck, I spend a lot of time and materials maintaining, cleaning, re-dressing and flushing this thing, and figured it was now useful again.
As it turns out, the nice lady said, "I can't use your line to take blood. We (the phlebotomists) can only take stuff out. To flush your line out, we'd have to put something in."
Now this, to me, is crap. It, I'm sure, would be way less risk of infection and stress on my body and another needle prick to take blood out of my line. I mean, that must be half the reason they gave it to me in the first place. In the meantime though I figured it wasn't worth the battle, so she pricked me up and took the quart of blood all those tests required. Then I headed back over to hematology/oncology and they shooed me into an exam room posthaste. Not a lot of waiting, at least until I got into and saw staff!
After the usual vitals, wieght etc. I was interviewed by the office nurse and nurse practitioner, who I had seen before on rounds and who had ordered my mouth care script the other day. I told them of my somewhat anemic symptoms I had been having for a day or so, and reported about my dedicaed line care, headaches, temp taking and all that stuff. As it turns out, my counts were all quite low. Platelets had dropped to about 11, my red cells were down and even my white cells were down to 55.
As it turns out, I can get my blood taken through the central line, so long as I request that at the clinic when I check in. Heck, If I can be a pain in the butt to someone, I guess I'll just have to be. No more silly pinpricks if they're not necessary.
Later, I was told I had to get platelets and red cells, the platelets coming before my bone marrow biopsy.
So, for the next several hours I lay flat in an exam room fading in and out of consciousness getting benadryl and hydrocortizone and then platelets. After getting all this I was feeling pretty darned good, and I think I surprised the nurse when she prompted me to walk down the hall to the biopsy room. As the phenobarb lolipop was dissolving in my mouth, I met the most interesting pair of nurse's aids. They were laughing and joking and carrying on in very much the same way the staff at theo's ribs do when you go there and order sweet potato pie. We talked about popcorn and friends and by the time my barbituate lolipop had disolved, they had my shorts down and my shirt up and I was ready for the biopsy. Dr Baer did the honors and it (honestly) only hurt for a second. Apparently I am a fantastic patient, but I have strong bones. It is quite an odd sensation to hear a highly-educated doctor grunt as she struggles to remove the very large biopsy needle from your backside. She got it out, and they bandaged me up and told me to change the dressing the next day.
The long and the short of my visit in the end was that I need to call Dr. Baer's office on Wednesday for the results of the biopsy, that my blood counts went down quite a bit and I should have them checked again while I am here -- I have an appointment with Dr. Khan on thursday and he has been prepared for the likelihood of giving me blood transfusions of various types -- and my chemo, which was scheduled to start again next monday, has been pushed back by a weeks time. We'll see what Dr. Baer has in mind when I visit her next Monday.
On the way home from the clinic we stopped at Anchor Bar. Cool looking place inside. Di let me order wings than ousted me to the car while they were being prepared. No wings are worth getting an infection over! She was right. I ate the famed wings in the car on they way home. They were ok, but nothing to write home about or even drive to buffalo for. I'd eat the wings at the mosquito lounge anytime before doing that!
Today was quite a bit more relaxing. Headed to syracuse in the AM for another visit to the fertility clinic, then came back here and mostly rested in the afternoon. Ordered a new shipment of the nupogen shots per my doctor's request. Got the tracking number, and I see they're on thier way as I write. Diane made one of my favorite dinners tonight: Curried chicken flourentine. YUM! So, otherwise that's About it.
Hope all is good in your neck of the woods. Long post tonight, but I've been off for awhile. Thanks for writing and reading!