Plan
7:30 Nuc Med-bone scan contrast injection
Leave to get coffee and food
9:30 Nuc Med-bone scan
10:40 lab
11:40 oncologist
*maybe lunch, probably not...
1:15 treatment (immunotherapy infusion)
2:15-3:00 Leave to drive 4 hours home.

Actual
7:30 Nuc Med-staff refuse to do peripheral IV contrast injection because I have a port, have trouble with lateral port blood return, so access the medial port, get good blood return, inject contrast. Mind you, both times accessing hurt like a MOFO!!! Peripheral would’ve been easier and less painful.

8:30 go to lab...because they injected me later than scheduled, new bone scan time is 10:30.
Wait for an hour.
this is what they have to draw. It is the limit for my weight for the day....I haven’t eaten or drank anything AND my BP runs in the low side. Great fun! They used the needles that were already accessing my port.

We then find out that they were the wrong gauge 😕 for the bloodwork that was needed for the clinical trial. GREAT! 👍

It’s now 10:10. I walk all the way back to my car in the pkg garage for my noon meds and Gatorade and water and a bad pear.
10:20 Nuc Med-bone scan
11:10 Oncologist-wait an hour-wait in the waiting room (BS’ing with a nurse I love ❤️) for another 35 minutes. See Dr.
12:45 see clinical research nurse. EKG. Decide that the mess-up with the blood is fine.

2:00 check in for treatment.
2:30 treatment begins. Infusion takes 30 minutes. This is a drug I’ve had numerous times over the last year, but it’s been flagged that this is my first dose because....study, so I’ll have to wait an hour after to be sure there’s no reaction 😲

Waiting an hour post infusion means I’ll be heading out of Raleigh/Durham in the middle of fucking rush hour traffic 😕 and I need to get from one side of Raleigh to the other.

Luckily, they decided since this wasn’t my first infusion, they’d let me go without the wait.
3:50 exiting the parking garage at Duke. It’s a race to get in the interstate and across Raleigh before traffic gets bad!
Oh! And, I still haven’t eaten anything except the few bites of a bad pear 😕

So!!! I made it! Traffic was heavy, but not terrible. I stopped just before I got on to I-95 (long outside of Raleigh) for McDonald’s and gas and made it home in 4 1/2 hours!
Not too bad, but Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, it WAS a very long day. And, I didn’t even feel bad about McDonald’s 😂

omg. what a day!

McDonalds can be considered emergency rations. For the next time, throw a few granola bars in your purse for a top up. I'm glad they had a bit of common sense by the end of the day. Sheesh

holy crap dude. Also how do you keep living without all that blood?

TeenaBasevi: totally agree about McDonald’s. The only downside is my go-to McDonald’s meal is the quarter pounder with cheese meal with fries and a regular coke. I got that, but you can now add bacon. So. I added bacon because....bacon! 🙄 But, it ruined the flavor of the quarter pounder and I was so sad 😞 like...IT’S BACON!! Just didn’t taste the same

ronberwick: I know, right??? It was not quite ripe and it had gotten dinged up a little in my bag, so it was hard and soft in all the wrong ways 😜

isle: Actually, supposedly after you give blood, you feel fatigued for a day or two, but THEN you get this rush of energy when your body starts making ALL THE NEW BLOOD!!! So, I’ll keep fingers crossed for all the energy....in a few days, maybe?