An Athlete's Journey Through Breast Cancer: Another Round

Drug Trial Day! I'm in a rather chipper mood today. It is my fourth day this week at the Cedars Campus, one would think I would be over it, but I'm feeling happy.

First stop, the Vampire Paul's lair. I have an extra order to fill, my general practitioner wants to do my annual cholesterol test too. This means that I had to fast all night, so no food or drink (a little water was okay) since midnight. It is now 9:45am. Vampire Paul starts laying out the tubes for the oncologist's order. I notice that he didn't have the research kit out, so I mention it to him. He goes to grab it and starts laying out those tubes too. Today he took 11 (eleven) tubes of blood from me!!! And, on an empty stomach. Needless to say, I was a bit woozy after he was done with me.

I head over to the exam room for prescreening process. The nurse gets me some orange juice and a tuna sandwich so I won't pass out in front of the doctor. We spend about 45 minutes on the exam, lots of questions, how I'm feeling, what medications I'm on, any new pain, how are the hives, etc... While I am here, I pop a couple of Ativan to get me nice an relaxed for the next part.

Then, we head over to the short infusion room today for my torture session (shots). We prepare my thigh again with the Lidocaine-Prilocaine cream. And, then we wait (about an hour) for them to thaw and mix the shots. Today takes a little longer, the regular pharmacist is out. Since it is taking longer we put a little more cream on my thigh in case it has starting to wear off. It is about 1pm and they are finally ready.

Crude little torture devices

And, the fun begins...The first one goes in right at the top of my thigh, in the heart of the muscle area. As always, this one goes in with a ton of pain, gets a 10 every time. Southpaw gets a big squeeze and a scream into his back. Number two goes in two inches down my thigh on the top part again in a nice muscle area. It is not as bad as number one, it gets a 6.5 rating on the pain scale. The next two go into the side (outer) of my thigh. Surprisingly, these both go in almost effortlessly. I feel the initial prick of the needle, but don't feel the fluid squeeze in. This is good, the needle prick gets a 2.5 on the pain scale. The nurse dresses the area and now they will monitor me for an hour before I get released.