April 2 - 2nd week of Arsenic Infusions

As far as Jessie's body goes, she is handling the Arsenic Trioxide infusions very well. The only problem has mainly been that it takes a LONG time. It is a minimum of 5 hours from door to door. It just doesn't seem to be possible to go any faster. Especially on Mondays. Today went much like last Monday....up at 7 am, leave by 7:15am. Get to the hospital by 8:20am and to cardiology clinic by 8:30am. Wait, wait, wait until they call your name. No one else is in the waiting room that early. Why does it take 30 minutes when no one else is there? Who knows. 9-9:05am: 12 lead EKG done. We trek back up to Hematology/Oncology clinic where we sit and wait. At least there are other patients there that were ahead of you so you feel a little justified waiting. 9:30-9:45am- they call your name. You go back, get vitals done and get a "pod" for the infusion. 10:30am nurse comes in to take blood. 11am-EKG has been read 2 hours later. It's OK for another week of treatment. Not much happens for a few hours. Occasionally you see a nurse who says, "We are still waiting to hear about the labs". Finally about 12:30pm they get the OK from the lab that the magnesium level is good. Nurse says, "Now the lab will mix the medicine". A few hours later, nurse appears with the fluid. Infusion starts about 2:30pm and is supposed to take 2 hours with a 20 min flush after. Somehow the lab doesn't subtract fluid from the bag before the insert the medicine so a 2 hour infusion becomes a 2.5 hour infusion. Then a 20 min flush. It's 5:20pm by the time the infusion is finished. By the time you jump in the car and get home it's about 6:30 or 7pm. Whew!
All other days it about 2.5 hours of round trip travel time and 2.5 hours of infusion. I'm trying to avoid wait time at any point during our visit because it just adds to this marathon. Jessie has been such a trooper keeping me calm when it gets so frustrating waiting. Mike took her today to give me a break and he experienced the fun today. He texted me that Jessie was taking this like a pro and he was so very proud of her and amazed at her strength. Way to go, Jessie. Momma is proud of you, too!