Vorlon Whispers

And so it Begines

I’m sitting in the oncologist’s office waiting for my chemo treatment. I have met with the oncologist and he seems satisfied with what he sees in his cursory exam. He is going to schedule me for a CAT scan in two weeks to see how I’m doing. He expressed optimism that the CAT scan would show improvement. I almost wish he hadn’t said that. I don’t want to jinx the results.

I am still scheduled for another treatment in three weeks – which is what I wanted.

I asked him why don’t they hit me with the same does every two weeks instead of three. He said it takes three weeks for the bone marrow to recover. I told him about my friend whose wife went for chemo treatments for lung cancer every week. He said, in her case the give one-third of the does every week instead of the whole does every three weeks.

Right now they are pumping the Tagamet and the Benadryl into me. I think I can feel the initial effects of the Benadryl starting.

I was a bad boy last night. I forgot to take my pre-medication at 12:00 midnight. I was tired last night and I completely forgot. I told the nurse of my error and she didn’t think it would make a difference.

My next meeting with the oncologist will be with one of his partners. My oncologist if from India and he is going home to celebrate his parent’s 60th wedding anniversary.

I had a few minutes to interview him and ask him how he got started in oncology. He said he tried doing colonoscopy, but it was early in the technology and it took two hours and was just very stressful. He didn’t figure he wanted to do that. He said someone he knew at the University of Pennsylvania encouraged him into his field. He went to the University of Pennsylvania and he considered his friend one of the smartest people.

The Benadryl is starting to hammer me. I can see they have upped the Decadron from 10 to 20 mg to make for the premedication I did not take last night.

Posted by The Vorlon at November 30, 2005 10:10 AM