Friday 31 July 2009

The waiting game...... Cycle 2 Day 4

It only takes a small hitch to throw the oncology ward's carefully laid schedule into chaos, and that happened yesterday. Unplanned emergency admissions delayed the start of overnight chemo for some scheduled patients. The knock-on effect today was that some of the "overnighters" were still occupying beds this morning when the day care patients' treatment was due to start.

The waiting room was almost full when we arrived at hospital shortly before 11 am - some people had been hanging around for two hours. Our main concern was that the Velcade would go past its sell by date if there was a long delay. However, Alana found a small side room where she could do Steve's obs and take blood samples for testing. Then, rather than stay on the ward adding to the chaos, we took ourselves off to the cafe for coffee and cakes, and read the newspaper for an hour until the test results were cleared.

It was still standing room only when we returned to Oncology at midday, and the bed allocated to Steve was occupied by someone else. But as the Velcade top-up only takes minutes to administer, he was fitted in as soon as another bed became available and was out again shortly thereafter. It seemed like we had been hanging about for ages, but only two hours had passed according to the car park ticket. Funny how time can play tricks on you.

So, cycle 2 moves forward, and in two weeks time, we'll know whether the drug trial treatment has worked - hopefully, there'll be something to celebrate. But we don't have to wait until then; we have good reasons to celebrate this weekend.

Our nephew Nick and his partner Kate are expecting a baby in early 2010 - great news! We'll raise a glass to you all this evening - much love and many congratulations! The weather looks set fair for Sunday, when we're out to lunch with Ruth, joined by Anne and Colin visiting from Chichester - we're looking forward to seeing you all! Europ Assistance has refunded the costs of canceling our trip to Turkey, and my regrading back in April has shown up in this month's salary. More cards arrived in the post today to extend my birthday. The score in the third test match put the icing on the cake!


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