The 18th Hole

Okay, so as much as I would have preferred to be on the golf course, it turned out to be a pretty great day. Tim took the day off so he could take me to my first chemo in Cambridge at 10:30.  At first, I was a bit nervous when I walked into the treatment room because it was quite a lot smaller than it is in Saskatoon, and since I am used to getting a private suite, I wasn't looking forward to such tight quarters. However, the nurses managed to have us howling within the first 30 seconds and all was good after that. I introduced myself to the nurse at the desk and she just happened to be Georgina, the nurse assigned to me for the day. She said she had been going through my file that morning and was happy to finally have me there for my first treatment with them. She then proceeded to introduce us to the other nurses, calling Tim "Mr. Barb". He laughed, but not sure how cool he was with it. Georgina, a little Welsh spark-plug who is lucky if she's kissing 4 foot 10, asked me about the exact nature of my canser and my age - and then mentioned how unlucky it seemed. So I said "Yeah, guess I drew the short straw" and she said "Funny, that's what my friends say to me!".  Well, it wasn't 5 minutes and Tim had all the nurses wrapped around his little finger, taking pictures and making jokes.  They were all very curious about the port being in my arm as they are all put in chests in Ontario, made me the most popular freak-show in the room. The nurses were PHENOMENAL - happy and helpful and incredibly supportive. They were even playing tricks on each other - while Georgina was out of the room, they snuck over and extended my IV stand as high as it would go so she couldn't reach it.  

Georgina

Janice, Georgina and Leigh

Another thing I enjoyed about the experience was that they had a boom box right by my chair and the very first song I heard was "You Give Love A Bad Name" by Bon Jovi! Totally took me back to the good old days when I was 4 inches taller thanks to my inherent ability to back comb my bangs.  The radio station was awesome, playing the soundtrack of our youth and at one point, in an ode to Kendal Day, Tim and I were (very discretely) "throwing the HORNS".  We are definitively the rock stars of the Cambridge Day Clinic.

About 20 minutes after we got there, Liz Quinn came to the day clinic to meet me. She is the Access Coordinator at the hospital, and she has spent a great deal of time working on my behalf to convince the hospital board to allow me to be treated there and directly bill the costs of my treatments and meds to Sask Health.  I have to admit it was a very emotional moment to get to meet her after the months and months of phone conversations and emails we have exchanged.

Liz - one of the many people who have been so helpful and supportive...

Gail - head nurse making sure Tim is qualified to remove my pump...and me, as usual, talking with my hands!

As it was my first treatment, it took quite a bit longer than normal, only because they needed to confirm dosing and push-time requirements on several of my meds.  The other big difference between Saskatoon and Cambridge is that here, the nurses are required to gear up completely with gloves, gowns, goggles and a mask every time they administer a new chemo in order to protect them from over-exposure. Let's just remember they are pouring this DIRECTLY into my veins every two weeks. Yikes. Can't wait to see the long-term effects of THAT.

I was the youngest patient by at least 2 decades, but I'm used to that. Although it was pretty tight in there, it certainly creates a bigger bonding experience and the opportunity to get to know your fellow patients better. Tim popped out for an hour or so to run some errands and I killed the time playing Scrabble on his iPad and meeting my new posse. He obviously missed me while away because he was all over me like white on rice and I had to tell him to stop kissing me so much because it would make the other women jealous. He asked if he should go and kiss all them too, and I said  "Only if you want to get dead!" and then realizing just where I was, quickly said "Maybe I shouldn't be making jokes about getting dead in here, huh?" We had a good giggle..  

After chemo we picked up the kids:

In the front yard at Riley's daycare - PERFECT tree for climbing!

and Bailey and headed out to Tim's folks' house for a FANTASTIC meal and a great visit.  It is always great to see them but it was especially good for me today to get to compare notes with Barb about our experiences at the Cambridge Day Clinic.  The kids had a blast seeing their grandparents and playing in their backyard and the two Baileys (my dog and Barb's shit-zhu) got along really well.

On the way home Avery spotted some fireworks in the sky, so Tim drove us over and we got an impromptu fireworks display before bed.  It was amazing.

Watching the fireworks...

You can't really see it but Riley is on my lap with Bails on HIS lap...

Thanks for tuning in...see you soon!