Wednesdays Are The Worst Days

Every Wednesday we go to the cancer clinic for chemo and we check-in to Lurie Hospital (a place Chris and I always said we hoped we would never have to go to with our kids).

They made an exception for Laila’s first treatment and allowed Chris to come with me, but in this “covid world” only one parent is allowed in. So today I was alone.

We check in at the desk and immediately have to sanitize our hands, replace our masks with the hospital masks and asked a series of screening questions for the 10000th time. Then, we are let up to the 18th floor.

Upon check-in we are admitted to a screening area where her vitals are checked, and we pray she doesn’t have high blood pressure.

Side note: I just learned that your kidneys regulate blood pressure. And because of the tumor, Laila was having high blood pressure readings in the hospital. This is something we need to closely monitor as it may require her having to take blood pressure medication.

After vitals, we are led down the sterile hallways to our room for the day. Lea, our super bubbly, extra animated nurse comes in, greets us, spends five minutes playing with Laila and then gets down to business.

Another side note: we have met so many amazing nurses and doctors in the hospital but if I ran into any of them on the street I wouldn’t know. Everyone. Is. Wearing. A. Mask. I hate it.

Lea swings around to the computer and starts the questions - how is she? Concerns? Symptoms? How is she sleeping? And then the covid questions that we have now had to answer 97364 times - “have you traveled outside the country in the last 14 days,” um no, no one has. “Have you been in contact with anyone with covid?”, No we have been quarantined”....eye roll.

The questions take a good 30 minutes to get through.

It’s not until the questions are complete that they can start making the chemo. “Chemo is too expensive to make in advance.”

So then we wait. And wait and wait. A good hour until the chemo arrives. Along with a nurse in full protective gear from head to toe.

Laila’s chemo is administered through the port they inserted into her chest during the biopsy. It actually makes it a lot easier to draw blood and administer the chemo versus having to prick her arms every time.

Once the port is accessed and the chemo starts going in the process takes under 15 minutes. The speed of the most important part was surprising to me, but can’t imagine her tiny body can handle a large dose.

Laila is getting a combination of three chemo medications. She gets one of them every week, and every three weeks she gets one of the others (and those two alternate). The alternating drugs are the "rougher ones" so, thankfully today was one of the "easier" ones - which is still not easy.

And then after it’s done they seal her port back up and we are good to go....knowing that her first few days following chemo are the worst days.

Three down....