Monday, April 2, 2012

This morning my dad came with me to my Avastin treatment. We got there right on time at 9 a.m. and after we checked in they took me back and accessed my port to draw my labs. We just sat there waiting for a while for my lab results to come back. After a little while my nurse for the day came to me and said that my blood levels were kind of low again and my doctor's nurse was offering to give me 2 units of blood if I wanted them. I was a little confused for a minute or two and asked if my levels were high enough to be treated. The nurse said yes, they were high enough and the other nurse was offering me the choice if I wanted it. After thinking for a minute I decided to decline the blood. She went back to the phone and told my doctor's nurse that I didn't want the blood and she came back with the response that if I was feeling really tired over the next day or two to call in and they would arrange for a blood transfusion. I asked the nurse for a copy of my lab results so I could look at them and she said she would print them out for me once they were all back from the lab. After some more waiting the nurse brought me the printout and I was surprised to note, after comparing it to last week's results, that my platelet count had gone up from last Wednesday, but my white and red blood cell counts had gone down slightly! I decided to call DH (who was working from home today while watching the kids for me) and we discussed whether I should get the blood transfusion. After talking it over for a few minutes we decided that if my levels were at critical levels, they wouldn't give me the option and my levels would be too low to receive the treatment. So I got off the phone with DH and then we sat there waiting again. A little while later the nurse came by and said that the head of the trial that I am on had called and given the okay to give me the infusion. So I guess at that point they put in the order for the Avastin to the pharmacy and then we had to wait and wait and wait some more before they finally got the drug from the pharmacy. They finally started my infusion more than 2 hours after I got there... The infusion itself lasted 30 minutes, then they had to flush the bag with saline solution and then we seemed to wait some more for no reason once again. The nurse finally came by with the flush for my port and finally was able to de-access me and send us on our way... We didn't leave until about 12:15! We were there for over 3 hours for a 30 minute infusion! While we were there I got a call from DH saying that he had received a call from work and things were not well and that he needed to get down there as soon as possible. Since Luke was home and my dad and I were hopefully going to be leaving soon, I told DH to just go and we would be there soon.

So my dad and I finally left for home and we got there and I had about 5 minutes before I had to leave for my mammogram which was at a different clinic. I sat with MJ for a few minutes and grabbed myself a quick snack to eat and then left my dad with the kids while I left. I got to the clinic just in time and I was surprised with how quickly everything went with the mammogram. I had to fill out a paper when I checked in and then they took me right back to change into a gown and then the technician took me back for the scans and then I was through. I was in and out of that clinic in about 15 minutes - it was awesome! And I didn't think that the mammogram was that bad at all. I would take that any day over doing a breast MRI or even going to the dentist!! The technician said that they would be sending the results of the mammogram to me and to my doctor as well.

After I got home from the mammogram I laid down for a few minutes and then I had to leave to drive the orchestra carpool for M&M and some of her friends from school. By the time I got home from that I was exhausted! Whew, what a busy day!!