Chemo and The Bell

We had made it through week one of radiation, it was good for the most part. Mike had seen the doctor, once a week while doing radiation you have to be seen by the doctor to make sure that everything is going well and there are no issues, they also wanted to keep a check on his weight during radiation as he did not opt to have a feeding tube. So, Friday was here, we did radiation, and we were off to chemo, this was our first appointment. I was taking him to each appointment, I had taken every Friday off through his treatment so that I could take him. I was going to work while he was getting treatment but the internet there was not the best and if he needed anything that was more important, so I chose to take vacation days on Fridays until he was done with all treatment. We did have offers from everyone to help with getting him there, I just wanted to be the one to do it as he saw the Oncologist every Friday and I wanted to hear what was being said. We get to our appointment, get checked in. He is called back, I waited in the waiting room, he had to give blood every Friday and they checked everything to make sure he was good to go for chemo, since this was the first appointment this was the blood work that would be used for the baseline to start treatment. Once he gave the blood (it was done through the port which was nice) we were put in a room, everything was good with his blood work so we waited to be called back for chemo. We were both very nervous as we did not know exactly what to expect. We got back there, it was little areas with curtains and so many people getting all different types of chemo therapy. We were put in an area close to the nurses station since this was the first appointment. The nurse came in, the treatment began with all kinds of steroids, benadryl, other things that I honestly cannot remember, it was all kinds of things to prep for the actual chemo. We had to wait for quiet a while for all of that to run its course, then they came in with the chemo. The nurse literally had a gown, mask, gloves, she told us that if the chemo Mike was getting touched her skin it would immediately burn her really bad. That alone had us thinking gee, and this is about to go in Mikes body. She hooked it up, placed a bell on the table, the bell was to be rung if he felt weird or anything, it was for emergencies in case he had a reaction of any kind to the chemo. I was going to run to the cafe and get us lunch, I do not know what happen but we accidentally rang the bell. I cannot begin to tell you how many people darted in that room, it was a herd of doctors and nurses. We looked at them, and were like it was an accident, while they were glad it was an accident, I am sure they wanted to strangle us since they had talked about the importance of the bell. Oops..

When Life Gives You Lemons…Make Lemonade or Margaritas, whichever suits your fancy!