First trip to the infusion center...

I went over there for what I thought would be a quick injection of Velcade at 11AM.

We left around 2:30PM.

The waiting wasn't that bad, as I'd been anticipating it. Despite working for Disney I've never seen an episode of lost. So I've been conserving the DVDs I've gotten -- four years worth of shows. I watched the full pilot and another episode before I got called in.

That was when the fun began. They didn't have my orders ready, but they did tell me that they needed to draw more blood. "Why?" I asked. "I haven't been given any medication and you ran blood panels two days ago."

Turns out they aren't so good with answering "why" to my satisfaction. Oh well.

The real issue is that it turns out Velcade isn't a shot. It's an intravenous push. The woman tried THREE TIMES to find a vein. By which I mean she pushed in and moved it around and it hurt a lot when she removed it. Then she moved to the other arm, finally found one, and took six vials of blood before the IV push of Velcade. I am supposed to have this done every week for the next three and a half years. I may go insane if they can't find another mode of delivery.

Anyhow, so far, I feel no different, other than both arms are sore and I haven't coughed since I took all those pills! :)

Night falls on Little Rock...tomorrow looks like a day off (I'm sure they want more blood but nobody wrote any orders down for me, so they can go pound sand...they'll be getting blood on Monday anyway).

Chemical breakfast...

About to head over for the Velcade after finishing my first breakfast in anticipation of treatment.

Courses:

1. One bowl raisin bran with skim milk

2. One water

3. One 200mg tablet of Fluconazole (not an Italian dessert, but anti-fungal medication)

4. One 500mg horsepill of Levofloxacin (antibiotic)

5. One 400mg tablet of Acyclovir (antiviral medication)

6. One 40mg tablet of Pantopazole (again, not an Italian chicken preparation (Pollo Alla Pantopazole) but antinausea)

7. One 75mg tablet of Oseltamivir, aka Tamiflu (flu prevention)

Funny...I had heard that a seven course meal in Arkansas consists of an Armadillo and a six-pack. Turns out it's much more involved in creating an immune system. They'll be taking my real one away starting very soon, so they're building it up while they're killing it off.

I've got a pretty bad cold right now. The meds above should obliterate it in quick order, I think!