1600 Divis

My infusion appointments are long and intense. You need a really good night of sleep to deal with all of it. First is blood work on the 1st floor, but only after running to the bathroom because of the liter of water I drank on the drive over to help get my veins nice and plumpy.  Then it's up to the 4th floor to wait for my appointment with Dr Daud, with the white board behind the receptionist giving me an idea of how badly he's behind schedule - and it's always really bad. While waiting, I get an email from the UCSF MyChart App that has the results from the blood that was drawn just 30 minutes ago. I carefully and quietly check all of the results because, well, that's what good cancer patients do. After reading the results I go back to my iPhone solitaire card game.

The 4th floor is a busy place, with about 9 oncologists holding clinic there. People come from all over the country to see doctors here, and so the wait can be maddening, especially for first time patients - the ones with a pile of paperwork in their lap and quiet looks in their eyes. They're impatient and keep checking the time, and watching the clinic door as names are called one by one. Their guts are tight from the stress of it all and you just feel absolutely betrayed, and want it all to just go away.

Then there's the regulars, like me. We really don't care about the crazy long wait anymore.  We just eat our snacks and pull on our headphones and play music and games and text and whatever until we hear our name called. We also have a backpack or something similar, to hold all of our stuff.  And water - we got lots of water. Almost all of us are headed up to the infusion ward after we see our oncologists and we've learned that drinking a ton of water is paramount while on chemo or immunotherapy. The only problem is timing your pees so you're not in the bathroom when they call your name.

When I'm called I run to the bathroom at the end of the hall. Then, I get my height checked and weighed. I have my blood pressure, and temperature and oxygen level checked and asked whether or not I've fallen more than 2 times since my last visit. Then I'm taken into one of the exam rooms - finally - to wait some more. I just turn on the music again and snack on energy bars and chocolate and more water, of course. I also open my email app and find the email I sent to myself earlier that morning - the one with the list of questions for my oncologist. Always the questions. Every fucking three weeks there's always more questions about what the hell is going on. Le sigh.