Voyagin' West for Vincristine (AND Platelets)

Friday - August 3. 2012

Treatment Room

Am I obsessed with sleep?  I suppose so!  With tomorrow's start of a 4-day steroid, I am hyper-focused about resting up and getting ready for a repeat of early mornings.  Today, while disappointed not to bank more sleep time, I am up early enough to enjoy a magnificent red-orange sunrise illuminating nine deer seated sedately in the back yard!  Quite the compensation for not optimizing snooze-time.  Oh, I pulled out all of my sleep tricks before finally giving in, getting up, and heading downstairs.  The final decision came when I risked waking Joe by giggling to myself in debate over recent favorite quotes:  "Kiss my ass. This is a holy site" or "I do not like to work in groups.  Who does?!" (must be delivered with a Ukranian accent).  Time to start the day....

Joe and I are off to Richmond for Hyper CVAD odd-cycle's day #11 vincristine infusion.  Blood labs first and then the fast-as-lightning ten-minute vinristine infusion.  This protocol always engenders curiosity and admiration:  why day #11 and not day #10 or day #12?  How many clinical trials resulted in this particular timing?  So much research, medical effort, and human hope are the bedrock of each of these protocols.  My family and I are benefiting from all the people and work that has come before.  I am mindful, appreciative, and prayerful.

Yesterday, I set the wheels in motion for a second opinion at the University of Maryland's Greenebaum Cancer Center for my upcoming Bone Marrow Transplant.  Happily, my friend Betsy recommended a specific physician for a potential second opinion.  I feel tremendously relieved to have another expert medical opinion weigh in on the BMT options.  I also feel relief that I am not simply opening a webpage and randomly selecting a physician.  Having Betsy's personal connection is reassuring and invaluable.  The entry "paperwork" for Greenebaum is now complete (over the phone), a possible early September consultation date is penciled in, and procedures to forward my medical files are clear.  After next Friday's follow-up PET scan results have been read, I will ask VCU to FAX my file north and I will send off a CD with all imaging (bone marrow slides, MRIs, PETs).  Then Joe and I will actually get in a car, set our horizons beyond the Richmond intersection of interstates 64 and 95, and drive north for the second opinion.  As Carolyn has researched, second opinions are delivered in face-to-face meetings even when the physical examination of the patient is moot.  In fact, my initial consultation with the VCU Bone Marrow team could have been held over Skype given the lack of physical assessment that was needed.  Ah well, I will pack a thermometer, think non-neutropenic thoughts, and get ready for a road trip.

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It feels a bit like a lost day ....  My blood counts had dropped significantly since Monday so Dalton pumped me up with platelets before I headed home mid-afternoon.  Then, I crashed out DEEPLY on the couch for 3 hours before waking for dinner.  Day?  Gone!  That was fast!