Day 14 - The Longest Day

Wednesday is the day I spend all day at the hospital. I leave early in the morning to go and late in the afternoon to return, so I ride there and back. The sun is less of a worry at these times, but I still wear my mask.

My Chemotherapy treatment was scheduled for 9.30am. It commences with some anti-nausea tablets. After the cannula is put into a vein, steroid is injected and then I wait 30 minutes before the chemo drug could be applied. During the waiting time, a Nurse takes my blood pressure, pulse, temperature and weight.

Once the drugs are being pumped into my body, I lie back and read my Kindle book, the latest John Grisham novel, do some emails for work, read the news, or turn on the TV. There is private TV for every station in the day centre. Fortunately for me, the Tour Down Under is on so I was able to watch it until its conclusion. Great ride Richie Porte.

The pump through which the chemo drug is administered is on wheels and when in your chair is plugged into a power socket. The power cord can be unplugged because it will work on back up battery power for a short while (not sure how long) before it needs to be plugged back in again. In effect, the whole apparatus is mobile. This is very handy. Because of the amount of water I'm drinking, I need to go to the loo more often. Besides the chemo takes a couple of hours and getting up to walk around gives me a chance to get out of the chair.

While your there, a tea lady comes around and offers hot drinks and bikkies. I generally request a couple of bikkies because I haven't had anything to eat since arriving after my ride. Today I also had a cup of tea. If you're still there at 11.30, the same lady comes around with sandwiches for lunch. I had a cheese and salad sandwich.

I got out around 12.30pm today, which is later than usual. This was necessary because the dug was administered at an incorrect rate, which meant a Doctor had to be called and we had to wait a short while to make sure I was ok before they could let me go. I felt fine.

Once out, I went to the 8th floor café. It was pretty good, but the choices were limited. I had butter chicken with some steamed vegetables. It was good.

My Medical Oncologist gave me some good news yesterday. I didn't need to use salt solution to gargle and wash my mouth prior to every time I brushed my teeth, as I was previously advised. She said I could use unsalted water as long as it had been boiled and allowed to cool sufficiently to gargle.

So after lunch, I found a kitchen and obtained my water in a take away coffee cup and went to brush my teeth.

By now it was 2.30pm, so I made my way down to radiotherapy centre for my session.

The process used by the hospital is all via some online system. When I leave one appointment, the system recognises this and sets up my roster ready for me to register for my next appointment. Today, the chemo centre staff forgot to signal that I had left there after my treatment, so when I went to register for radiotherapy, the system kept pointing me towards the chemo day centre. Fortunately for me, the lady at the radiotherapy centre reception was still on duty and she told me to advise one of the Nurses who would make sure I was added to their list.

Although I told a Nurse immediately I arrived at the waiting area, and she left a note on the list, the Therapist and Nurse administering the radiotherapy that day did not see it, so I was left in the waiting room for around 40 minutes longer than my scheduled appointment time. They are normally within a few minutes.

When the last person had been through, including at least two that had come after me, I realised I should say something. I wasn't all that worried about time because I wanted it to cool down outside for my ride home anyway, but I still wanted to have my treatment before they all knocked off for the day. Anyway, they eventually found the note left on their list and came to get me .

I was pretty hungry again, so I went back up to the Level 8 café and ordered a ham and cheese toasted sandwich. I wanted to get my energy level up again for the ride home. Once finished, went to my now favourite toilet to get changed into my riding gear. Once there, I brushed my teeth and got changed into my riding gear. I left at 5pm.

I arrived home at 6.20pm, and although Vicki and I had planned a dip in the pool, the temperature had cooled quite a bit so I decided to have a shower and Vicki gave it a miss too.

After I was refreshed, I was hungry again so Vicki warmed me up some soup she made from the juices and vegetables left over from our corned beef meal on Monday. It was delicious and hit the spot beautifully.

A while later, we followed that with marinated chicken breasts and vegetables. Then we sat down and watched another couple of episodes of Outlander. We watched until around 10.15 when I had to walk across the road to get our son, who had been invited to a friend's party.

Once home again, I completed my M&T Routine, as well as my now ritual salt solution face wash, antibiotic rash ointment application and mouth wash gargle.

I went to bed around 10.45 after checking my work emails and diary.