My head is literally swimming right now. I can't speak for Mark but I think he's feeling the same way right now. Overwhelmed and drained.
We visited the cancer clinic this morning for his consultation about chemo. Prior to the appointment, we'd not been advised about the nature of the appointment...we had no idea how long we'd be there or what would happen.
In the end, we were there over 3 hours. Of that, very little time was spent waiting (which was good and not what we're used to when dealing with clinics in general). An entire hour was spent with an oncology resident (Dr S), probably 30 minutes with the actual oncologist (Dr B) and a good sized chunk of time with Mark's primary nurse. Her name is Lou and we've decided that we love her already.
The entire time we were there, we were bombarded with information. SO much information. It was a lot to process and I'm really glad that I went with Mark. The plan is for him to start chemo next week. He'll have it once every two weeks for six months. A PICC line will be put in next week and he'll get his first dose in the clinic and then will go home with a "baby bottle" pump for the rest of the dose. The pump will be worn for 46 hours and then a nurse (either in a clinic or at home) will take it off and flush his line. He can work while he's wearing the pump, as long as he feels up to it. Apparently the big side effect is fatigue. Of course, there is a scary long list of creepy side effects but we know that not everyone gets every side effects and certainly they don't usually get them in an extreme way. Most of the time, anyway.
So yeah, head is swimming and we're waiting for the appointments to come rolling in: CT Scan, PICC line installation, first Chemo dose.... his prognosis is good so we're trying to remain upbeat about things but six months is a long time and at this moment in time, it's kind of hard to see the forest for all of those trees.
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