11.13.07
Chemo Day
We are still waiting for a response from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene so I thought I would talk about chemo day.
Once a week, since mid July we have been driving to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for chemo treatments. Yes it’s a long day, about 1 and 1/2 hours each way, but I can’t say enough about the wonderful people at Hopkins! After 45 radiations treatments, monthly and now weekly treatments, multiple surgeries, hospitalizations and doctor visits I think my car (and my nerves) would benefit from auto-pilot. 
If you have never been there, Hopkins is a huge medical campus. Forturnately, most everything we need to do is in the Sidney Kimmell Cancer Center in the Weinburg building. A typical chemo day goes like this:
Yay, our appointment today was at noon! No rush hour traffic getting there, a small blessing in itself! The evening rush hour was another matter entirely. We stopped in admitting to get registered. After all this time, Mike and Pam know us well and we spent a few minutes chatting after completing all the joyous paperwork. Next, it was upstairs for blood work. Joe has a portacath so it makes life a little bit easier, no worry about collapsed veins and once the port is accessed they can draw his blood, give him his pre-meds and chemo with one needle stick. Marilyn is an expert at accessing ports and always gets it right the first time. It takes a one inch long needle so getting it on the first shot means so very much.
To be continued….
