Cancer Schmancer

I went back to my daily treks today, accomplishing treatment 6 out of 30, and it was a bit gruelling. Not the treatment itself, which was only a bit delayed from the scheduled appointment and took more or less the usual amount of time, but the peripheral stuff. Like having the cancer society driver show up half an hour early and I was about to eat lunch, then getting to PMH and going to the blood lab first, only to find that there were no orders in the computer for the lab to act on. To correct this, I had to go to the radiation nurse's clinic, where they were much preoccupied with people suffering far more than me, and wait until someone would key in the orders to take my blood and test it. Then back upstairs (and I try to avoid the elevator so I'll get some exercise) to the lab where I didn't have to wait long and everyone was laughing and joking about Caribana (the Toronto event of the summer if you like Caribbean music, food, etc.).

Once I was back downstairs and checked in for treatment, I had to wait a while because my unit (the radiation machine) was listed as 30 minutes delayed. This information appears on a computer screen as you check in (via a bar-coded card) and it's very useful. Just the fact of being informed about the status makes you feel part of the process in a way that might be underestimated by those outside the experience. Consequently I got a lot of knitting done before they called me -- I'm in danger of finishing the first of the projects I bought for my September workshop.

I had to wait a very long time for the ride home, making the whole expedition a five-hour effort. Yikes! I look forward to tomorrow, when Bob will take me down to PMH.