Which is quicker -- go for the initial blood draw in the Chemotherapy Department at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, where I have to check in anyway, or check in there and then go get it done in Phlebotomy Department, which allegedly adds an extra step to the handling process?
This week the chemo people seem ready and willing, so why not? Turns out there's still a two-hour wait for the results. No time differential at all.
When the pager calls me back to the chemo department, what takes a lot more time is finding a vein for the IV. The first chemo nurse tries two of them in my right hand and arm, but neither gives the blood-red signal of success. Two tries and out, she says. She won't do a third. I appreciate that.
She summons another nurse, who tries a third vein. Still no luck. They assess my left hand, which got the last two IVs, and declare the veins too hard, after-effects of the harshness of the chemo drug, Gemcitabine. Third and fourth nurses step in, look again at my right hand, and talk about calling still another nurse, George, who never fails to find a vein. But before they do, they spot a prospect between my thumb and index finger. It works.
Given the tender location, I brace for the worst with the Gemcitabine, which hurt a lot last week, but the first nurse buffers it with an immediate warm blanket and a simultaneous infusion of saline solution, which dilutes some of the nastiness. This, it turns out, has always been an option. It's a good one, the least painful of the Gemcitabine infusions so far. And now a week off.
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