Thursday 30th June
Now that I am on the Persephone trial I have to have more tests and stuff. So I meet with the Persephone lady at the blood clinic to have some blood taken.
My favourite phelbotomist is in attendance and once again performs the miracle which is getting blood out of a stone. Duty done, the Persephone lady takes away the two test tubes of my (hard won) blood.
I then have to have an echocardiogram. The clinic is located on the 9th floor. I decide to take the stairs, probably not such a good idea as when I arrive at reception I feel as though I'm about to have a heart attack.
I have to lie on my left hand side and the woman who wields the ultrasound probe is behind and leaning over me so I cannot see the screen. Last time the clinician was in front of me so I could see what was happening on the screen. Slightly frustrating but at least I can rest. I assume that everything is OK with my heart.
I then descend 3 floors to the chemotherapy unit to have my fifth round of Herceptin.
There are two new nurses in, who usually work up at Mount Vernon, consequently everything takes just a little bit longer. I am given all my pre-meds to stop the allergic reaction and then I have to wait about 30 minutes for them to "kick in" before the Herceptin can be given.
After the designated 30 minutes the pump makes a persistent beeping sound. This indicates that there is an air lock somewhere in the system and it won't pump until this is cleared. The nurse pushes various buttons, takes things out, puts them back and still there is a blockage. She then gets a syringe of saline and pushes this through the cannular in my arm. This hurts - a lot. Apparently there is "tissue" in the cannular, which given they use the thinnest cannulars available it is hardly surprising that it takes only a very small thing to block them. Anyway, once the blockage is cleared I can feel the cold saline going up my arm. This is a good thing.
Still the pump beeps and refuses to pump. Another nurse comes along pushes some buttons on the pump and all is cleared. The Herceptin can proceed. Hooray!
All of this blockage clearance has taken about half an hour and given that I didn't start being administered to until I had been in the unit for about 45 minutes, together with the 30 minute wait for the pre-meds to work and there is a further 20 minutes or so after the Herceptin has finished spent flushing saline through me, I actually spend very little time actually been given treatment!
I had arrived at the hospital at 10.30am. I leave a little after 4.00pm. It was a long day.
For those wondering about the title of this entry, I shall explain.
I am not by nature a superstitious person, being born on the 13th tends to put paid to that. However, I am beginning to notice a pattern in my visits to the chemotherapy unit.
Visit number 1: Severe allergic reaction
Visit number 2: Nothing
Visit number 3: 5 attempts at locating a vein, and a huge swollen vein in my hand.
Visit number 4: Nothing
Visit number 5: Air locks and blockages
I can only hope that the next 13 visits do not follow the above trend, because I can really do without the excitement.
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