THE AMAZING RACE.

Man oh man that was a looooong ass day.  My mornings have been starting every day at 5:15 am. Kevin my oldest son started high school this year and has to be at the bus stop by 6:35 for pick up.  Being a teenager, this is very difficult to do, you know waking up, that's hard on kids that age, ha.  So, I got him up and out the door and started in on the next one. Brady was pretty easy because we were letting him and his friend ride their bikes to school today so he was up and ready to go very quickly. Honestly I almost hoped he would wake up sick and I would have to cancel my whole day, no luck, of he went on his bike.

OUR FIRST CLUE

As we stared our race of a day, our first clue was to be sure to be ready to wait..........and wait........and wait.  We got to the Medical Oncologists (MO) office early and were ready to get the show on the road, but that was not to happen. We waited for about and hour before we were called back to an exam room.  I wasn't really thinking about the time actually because this was the doc I was very anxious to hear from (not happy, but anxious).  Dr. Shah was very nice and explained my future torture sessions pretty well.  She wrote me a script for a wig, yep the script say WIG on it, it's sorta funny.   She examined me and I must say, she had WARM hands, which was very nice for a change.  After our time with her, we were asked to see a person in charge of clinical trials. I can't say I remember anything that she said, because at that point we were already late for the Radiology Oncologist (RO).  When we were done with her the Chemo nurse came in, her name is Lynda, but everyone calls her Frenchie.  Maybe I can be Sandy? Actually, I am more of a Rizzo.

NEXT LEG OF THE RACE

Frenchie told us a little about the chemo to come and about the services offered at MD Anderson, again I didn't hear too much.  After we were done we sprinted next door to the big MD Anderson building to the RO office.  The MO office had emailed to say we would be late, but we only had 30 minutes to see the doc, get examined and get back to the ambulatory care building for the PET/CT scan.  They worked fast, the doc came in, he talked about radiation and examined me. In contrast to Dr. Shah, Dr. Dvorky's hands were like ICE, omg, they were the coldest hands yet.

LAST LEG, EYE ON THE PRIZE

Another sprint back to the ambulatory center, up the elevator and not one minute to spare.  Got registered and we were on our way.  The registration guy took us over the bridge back to MD Anderson to the nuclear medicine area.  We were greeted by Mae, a very nice nurse.  Mae brought us into a room titled "INCUBATION".  She started my IV and tested my blood sugar and we waited for a bit.  Due to the highly radioactive nature of the injection Pat had to leave and wait in the waiting room.  I set up my laptop and started to do some work, trying to make the day not a total loss.  Five minutes later another man came in with a ominous looking syringe, he put it in a odd looking metal tube and injected it in my IV. So, I sat.  The Scan tech came for me about an hour later and we went to the scan room.  I wish I knew his name so I wouldn't have to keep calling him the tech, but anyway, the tech had me lay on the table and put some peaceful generic elevator music on.  He taped my head to the table, in case I fell asleep, right!

MMMMM, I LOVE THE TASTE OF METAL.

In and out, in and out, in and out.  The PET scan wasn't too long or too boring.  Now let me tell you about the CT scan.  The CT scan didn't take long at all maybe five minutes, but boy oh boy was that strange.  Tech guy came back in and told me about the scan and injected something into my IV he said he would tell when it is released.  Back in the tube and nice British voice told me to hold my breath, in and out.  Tech guy came over the intercom and said the contrast solution was being released. Ewwwww that was weird, I had the strange metal taste in my mouth, my body felt warm all over and it felt like I peed my pants.  In and out, in and out again.  That was it, tech guy came in and much to my relief I did not pee my pants.  He helped me off the table and I was able to leave, THANK GOD!!!

QUARANTINED!!!!

When we were on our way home Pat called Kevin and explained to him that I could not be near him, his brother or the animals till at least 10pm because of the highly radioactive junk.  I got home and went straight up to my room.  After a while Brady came home from his friends house and Pat told him that he couldn't see me.  Heartbreaking, that is the only way to describe how it felt to hear him cry knowing that he couldn't just come hug me. Well we all tried to stay up till 10pm, but we all crashed instead.  At 1:30am, Brady was at my door, "Mama (he still calls me Mama, so cute), is it time yet?"  He crawled into my bed and I held him tight the rest of the sleep.