First day of treatment Part One: Oct. 25, 2016

PART ONE;

Tuesday Oct. 25 was quite a mystery for me. There are just too many things a novice at cancer treatment doesn't know. Just stepping into the lobby of Dana Farber from Brookline Avenue is a puzzlement. Sure it's spiffy! Clean as a whistle as you would want, a ubiquitous gift shop, stairs leading up to a reception disk with shiny tiled floors, and in the corner of the all window atrium is a beautiful Steinway piano for people to play, and I've learned that there is a sign-up times for people to play whatever they want.

I've now been to DFCI about 10 times, I can get in the correct lane for heading to the parking garage, I know where the validation desk is for my parking ticket and can pay at the pay station! I know how to find my car 6 floors under the building. I'm getting better at knowing where the less used bathrooms are so there are no waits when I get out of the car from Berkshire County all coffee-d up!

I recognized my oncologist once waiting for the elevator, she didn't see me but still I'm recognizing a few people in this huge complex.
I know where to go to get my bright yellow electronic badge. This device is like a felon's ankle bracelet only classier. It tracks you wherever you are in the complex. They can find you if you wander, which I'm prone to do..so I've been good this time...I haven't set off alarms like I've done in Newport mansions where I just had to peek in the rooms with the velvet cords that say "no entry" and when I enter, the alarms sound...BUSTED! When you get to a particular area or exam room, you push the button and I have no idea what that signals but that's what you're suppose to do. 

DFCI is just a data driven complex, they're sleek and efficient. They keep you waiting as little as possible. The staff is super friendly but not cloyingly friendly. You don't have perky 20 year olds named Kym or Bradley walking and talking too fast to showing you to your exam room. There is a respectful pace... even...tempered...and it gives me a sense of confidence in the staff and the treatment I'm receiving.

On Tuesday, I had my marching orders, Blood work, then EKG, Then Oncologist, then Treatment! Yep, it was happening...TREATMENT! The day of reckoning! Which protocol would be randomly chosen for me? 

I got my badge, potty break next, then blood work all with extra vials for research that I agreed to, then the elevator to floor 9, that is clearly marked Breast Oncology... more check ins and to the waiting area, a comfortable lounge and almost immediately a voice "Madonna B"... vitals time... so thank God weight is done in the Metric system, I seem so much lighter that way... and blood pressure. I'm amazed that while I feel in control and calm, the blood pressure cuff doesn't lie...I'm anxious, it's way into the 160's, as I wish my weight was.... I mention that it's the "white coat syndrome" and that I've been taking my pressure at home and it's in the low 120's regularly. No one says a word and then I'm ushered to my exam room. Time to push the button. 

As a side note, DFCI has amazing original art! The halls, the cafeteria, the patient rooms are filled with paintings, watercolors, sculptures. It's like an art museum. Famous artists, local artists. I don't think I've seen a framed print at all! This makes me stop and check it out...OH! I recognize a Red Grooms piece... the paintings below are in the main waiting room and the abstract is in the examination room. I'll get the Red Grooms later.

So as I wait in the examination room, the nurse comes in to tell me all the data from blood work and the EKG is being entered into the computer and once that's done I will know which variation/protocol I'll get from my HER2 Positive cancer. The doctor arrives and explains that the data is kept in a computer ..I can't remember where she said it was...and that it analyzes all the data and then chooses a protocol, no one knows except the computer. It's a mystery. I ask her how many patients she has on this trial and she says three others besides me. It takes about 25 minutes and she comes in to tell me the computer chose the T-DM1 protocol and she's very happy. The other three patients she has were given the standard protocol of Herceptin and Taxol. They will have treatments every week for one year, I will have the cocktail and be seen every three weeks for an infusion with very minimal side effects. She's happy, Margaret's happy and I'm very happy and very relieved to know that I can plan the next year. 

Part 2 continues later....