My friend Patrice Mitchell from Rochester, a recovering newswoman from a now-defunct newspaper (where we both used to work) as well as a cancer survivor, had the duty of accompanying me to chemo today.
She is visiting for a few days, and it was especially good to have her there because there was some problem with locating a vein to use. As the nurses stuck me a couple of extra times in my arm as I mentioned that the arms never works but the hands do, she was quick to point out that such delays are not unusual.
That helped me to cope as they finally decided to try a hand, which of course worked. All through this the nurses in the unit, who are a special breed, stayed positive and cheerful.
This was my eighth "infusion,'' but only the second since we learned that the drugs actually appear to be inhibiting the growth of the cancer cells. That makes it easier to take.
The current plan is for one more chemo treatment, next Thursday, and then the cyberknife radiation treatments the following week in Boston, to be followed by a period of waiting to see the results of that therapy.
So far the chemo gets more points than surgery for helping battle the disease. The idea is for radiation in its latest and most improved form to be the clincher.
Cry from the Sox fans today in the chemo center: "Go Phillies.''
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment