Chemo

Thursday, December 6th is the day slated to begin Leslie's chemotherapy. We are so incredibly excited to get things moving forward and really begin the final stages of healing. Dr. Batezini's office had set the appointment for 1pm and we needed to check in at admissions at the hospital at noon. From there we would go to the infusion center for a blood draw and then to Dr. Batezini's office for a quick meeting and then back down to the infusion center where the joy of injecting poison into Leslie would commence. Yay! It's a hospital, they're professionals, this is gonna be cake.

Except..........

Our little boy, Jared, develops a case of Pink Eye on the Monday before the appointment. From there Leslie develops a cold and laryngitis. Dr. Batezini determines that the Pink Eye might be an issue since chemo inhibits the body's immune system. Not a good idea to get sick with Pink Eye and then weaken the ol' immune system.

Fine.

We can wait.

Jared gets better by Wednesday and Mommy/Leslie gets better too so things are moved back one week to get a great start for chemo on Thursday December 13th. Yay. It's a hospital, they're professionals, this is gonna be cake. Birthday cake even, it's my Mom's birthday, this is gonna be great!

Except..........

We go to the hospital and check in at noon on Thursday the 13th. (For those of you that know me and my little rodeo cowboy type superstitions you will understand that going to the hospital on the 13th is a MAJOR event for me. Not a good one either. Had it been Friday the 13th we would have re-scheduled. No kidding.) Zip through the paper work, this is going great, no need to worry about things on the 13th here. This is a hospital, they're professionals, this is gonna be cake.

Except..........

When we get out of the admissions cubicle we take a wrong turn and go to the wrong half of the hospital. There are two sides, one that is for private practices and the other side for the actual hospital, giving us a 50/50 chance. We went to the wrong one. No big deal, we're only a couple of minutes late to the infusion center for the blood draw. Gotta get that blood work done so we can be sure you're healthy enough to put poison in ya! As we're getting the blood drawn and having the gigantic 3 inch long needle inserted into the medi-port in preparation for the chemo we are told that we will not be having chemo done today.

That'll stop ya in your tracks!

We're here, Leslie has a gigantic 3 inch long needle stuck into her chest with an 18 inch long tube hanging from it, we're ready to have poisonous substances injected into the 18 inch long tube that is connected to the gigantic 3 inch long needle protruding from Leslie's chest and they're calling a Time Out??!!??!!

Hmmm, it's the 13th. Dang good thing it's not Friday!

So we talk to the two women in the infusion center, Pat and Amberlee, and find that Molli from Dr. Batezini's office told them that she had told us that we would not be receiving chemotherapy today. The only minor glitch to that synopsis is that we never actually got that information. Ooops. This is a hospital, they're professionals, this is gonna be cake.

I'm fuming mad and can't hardly talk. Leslie, thank goodness, is able to work out a deal with Pat from the infusion center. Pat has graciously offered to stay late to get Leslie's chemo taken care of. All we need to do is get to Dr. Batezini's office, have our quick little meeting, and get back to the other side of the hospital so Pat can hook Leslie up to poison and make her sick. I mean better. Sorry.

We take off at a canter across the hospital and get to Dr. Batezini's office right at 2 o'clock. We are On Time for our appointment and things are looking up. We get the paper work taken care of while we wait and Leslie is excited to get something attached to the other end of the 18 inch tube that is connected to the gigantic 3 inch needle that is stuck into her chest. Her excitement wanes as we wait for AN HOUR to get in to see Dr. Batezini. By this time we've already called Pat and told her that there is no way we'll ask her to stay that late for us. We are both incredibly disappointed that we won't be doing chemo today but at last we finally accept it.

At 3:15 we finally see Dr. Batezini. She explains what will be happening during chemo and that we will be ready for chemo tomorrow morning. I will allow that I appreciate that Dr. Batezini is willing to take as much time with a patient as that patient would like. I don't like it when it takes an extra hour to get in to see her but I will say that she is very good when you finally get to have some time with her. I guess that's modern medicine for ya.

3:45 and we're walking out of the hospital with our new friends Mr. Gigantic needle and Mr. Tube. Yay, new friends.

We go home and eat some birthday cake for my Mom. Happy Birthday Mom!