Absent

Hi everyone! So I haven't posted in several days because my computer has been really weird. It would freeze and not let me open any programs. It was quite annoying. Well, today it apparently decided to not have PMS. Warning: Long blog! Whoa!

My trip to the SCCA on Wednesday was actually longer than my trip last Friday, thankfully it didn't feel as long. We showed up and I had to do a blood draw. A little girl was back there getting a shot or something but she was screaming bloody murder. Made me sad to think a little girl was there. It took a little while but they found a vein and managed to take some blood. Then we went upstairs and waited for a bit to see Dr. Tykodi. A lady with a little cart walked around offering people juice, water and crackers. All free. Cool! We went back and the nurse weighed me and I was actually pleased to see I have not lost any weight. I think I've finally hit a plateau. I have lost far too much weight in a short enough period, so I'm ok where I'm at. My blood pressure was fine too. Well, i had to lay down on the table because I was so exhausted. It took at least a half hour before he came in to see us. He told me that my MRI and Bone Scan were fine. Nothing stood out to them that we should be worried about. Phew!!
Basically he went over what he has before about my meds. My dad had really been confused before.

My medical treatment is as thus: Starting this last Wednesday (10-20-10) I would receive through IV Bevacizumab (Avastin) every other wednesday at the SCCA. Starting next Monday* (10-25-10) I would start through an under the skin shot Interferon. I would first start with 300 million, then up to 600 million and then the highest i'd probably go is 900 million. The Avastin wouldn't really have side effects except perhaps high blood pressure, and fatigue. The blood pressure they'll just keep an eye on at my appointments and if needed, they'll put me on meds for it. The Interferon is where the side effects will come and give me problems. I am going to have flu symptoms like crazy and perhaps some other symptoms. I can't remember what all of them are. The Interferon I'll have to take three times a week.

So after this we asked Marla (she's the lady I go to to make any of my appointments. I give her the paperwork, she makes the schedule) to get ahold of Sharon (my nurse) because I had an appt with her. I dont know why, but my dad decided this was a good time to take off and have a cigarette. Sharon and my pharmacist Anna came out just a few minutes later but we needed my dad to be there. I tried to call him but it went strait to voicemail. I tried calling back about 7 minutes later and he answered and said he'd be up in a minute. He had been on the phone with my mom, updating her. So, my dad, Anna and I went into a little conference room. She was going to teach me the proper way to inject my Interferon shots. I was able to use some saline solution and inject it into this weird fake flesh colored thing. Good thing I got to practice and that my dad was there to learn about it all too. I almost did it wrong.

After this we had a little over an hour before i was due in the Infusion department to start the Avastin. My dad and I took a little walk up the street to a cafe (which I won't title because that would be defaming it really...) It took forever for the lady to come up to us to order. The place was pretty busy but it was just the one waitress and then one guy behind the bar cooking. Once we ordered, it took forever to get the food. In fact, it took so long that i ended up taking off to get to my appt in time and my dad had to catch up with me later with the food.

I checked in at the Infusion desk and it was interesting because just like at restaurants, they give you those square pager things that light up and buzz when it's your turn. I was reading a magazine (Ugh,getting tired of those) and waiting for mine to light up when my dad showed up with the lunch I had ordered. He said his sandwich left a lot to be desired. The little pizza I ordered had the same effect. I didn't even finish it.

My pager went off and they told us to go to room 8. It took us some time to find it. There are like 60 rooms back there. It was weird because we thought maybe we had the wrong room. We waited, and waited. I turned on the tv and found Fullhouse was on.. (that was like the only thing..) After almost 20 minutes, we asked a nurse walking by if someone was going to come in to talk to us. She told us to hit the nurse call button. I did and some girl came in. We told her this was our first time here and no one had come in yet to talk to us. She seemed surprised and asked if we wanted a tour. A bit confused, we said yes. She took us down the hall and showed us which rooms get which nurses desk (There were so many, seriously!!) where we could find warm blankets (why do they have such thin blankets anyway?) and then, this is where we were a little bummed and upset, she showed us both kitchen areas where they have tons of free food and drinks that are self serve. Seriously? You mean we didn't have to go to that dumb cafe after all? They have tons of options and I'm kinda excited to take advantage of that in the future. When we got back to the room, we had to wait like another 10 minutes before a nurse came in. So, basically we had been back there for about an hour at this point. The nurse said or asked something and we told her no one had come back to us yet. And also that this was our very first time to the infusion center. She kept apologizing and how this was a bad first impression. She said a nurse that was supposed to take care of my room went off for a lunch break and that she was covering and just remembered to come take care of us.. (or some crap like that). She was actually quite nice about it and I was not comforted when the nurse that went off to have lunch came in... ugh my dad and i both didn't care for her. It was weird how she didn't really want to open her mouth when she talked. Plus, she seemed really spacey.

The first nurse then proceeded to fit me with an IV. I have HORRIBLE veins. They are super shy and won't come out. She tried (and it kinda hurt) to put one in on my hand, right next to where I had the blood drawn earlier, but after a while had to take it out because it wasn't working. She eventually got it to work in my arm near my elbow pit. :) They have to be really careful because of the type of drug that this is, if it leaks out at all, there can be major problems, so they try to avoid joints. I'm not going to say this was a painless process. I hate needles and this just fueled that hate.

It took 30 minutes to get all the Avastin in and then they have to do a flush which takes 10 minutes. After that, they took out the IV and sent us home. (We took some food and drinks with us to go, ha ha) We stopped by to see Marla and get my finished treatment schedule. Then it was off to horrible traffic we went. :)

* This asterisk meant that the start date has some issues... Dr. Tykodi WANTS me to start the Interferon come Monday, but I won't be able to because my DSHS hasn't been approved yet. This is turning into a mess. My dad finally got a hold of someone over there and they weren't happy with what I had turned in to them or something. I don't know. If I could just go in to talk with someone there instead of them sending us little letters saying what they need, it'd probably work out better. So, the deal is, we are going to try for DSHS this week because Dr. Tykodi doesn't want me to wait any longer than the following Monday to start. Hopefully all of this will work out.

Well, that's about it I guess, unless I think of more to put up later. I hope all is well with you and yours aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I hope these meds work to kick cancers butt.

-Mallory