September 15, 2025 Treatment Day

I know, I know... I said no more treatments... but I also told my VCU oncologist I would follow her recommendations. She asked if I'd be willing to do a reduced dosage of the new cocktail, minus the shot. The team is pretty confident that the shot (Neulasta) is what caused me to feel the intense pain I was in (and of course no one giving me directions on how I could care for myself during that treatment). I told her I would do it, but know I wasn't happy about it.... 

I had to go to the Massy Center at Stony Point (where I typically go for VCU appts) for labs and my office visit. This time is was with the PA Sarah. She was pretty cool. I liked her. This visit didn't take very long, just kinda routine since I have nothing new going on. The down side is that their pharmacy is undergoing renovations so I had to go downtown for the actual treatment. We remember how much I LOVE downtown Richmond, right..... 😣

It only took me about 25 minutes with traffic to get to the North Hospital... there is a difference between North, Main, etc. This one there was nowhere to park close by but they do offer valet parking. There's only been 1 other time I've done valet parking and that was a hotel me and my kids went to in DC years back, but that was in my old Acura.... didn't care what happened to that thing. First time for my Tahoe.... But it came back to me in what appears to be the same messy, dirty condition I left it in.... Free valet parking too since I had my ticket validated. Guess I couldn't expect detailing for free services, huh. 😜

Ok, so North Hospital experience... I walk in and immediately in front of me are 2 options... check-in desk on my left that has a sign that reads "welcome" and a metal detector to my right with a sign also reading "welcome". I ask the 2 folks at each stations who wanted to welcome me first, and both were flat, emotionless. Just said that I had to go to both so pick one. Nice welcome. I checked in and was given directions to where I needed to go. Then I went thru the metal detector. Pass thru the first portal and find my way to the second portal.... only to be greeted almost the same. When I walked up, the lady told me to provide my name, DOB, sign in and get a mask. No smile, no good morning, nada. Did I end up back in Roanoke?? And... Um... mask? Those aren't required anymore, right? Well, I grabbed one to take with me. She asked if I was thru Stony Point on a couple of different occasions, to which I said yes. I take my seat and wait to be called. Then I hear my name at the check-in area, same area I checked in at a few minutes ago, there was a a second lady there. She was just a tad bit friendlier but not much. Again, name, DOB, from Stony Point, allergies... yadda yadda... stuff that is all in my chart. The reason I mention they asked me about being from Stony Point was the manner in which it was asked and my response was received. It was almost like they were under the impression that I thought I was better than everyone else, sort of an attitude because that location is my primary. Grab a snotty attitude and say to yourself "she's from Stony Point" and there ya have it. Was just weird being they are ALL VCU...

Once I'm called back to the treatment area, the mask has to go on until I get to my cubby. Makes ABSOLUTELY no sense to me whatsoever.... The HVAC system is running, circulating all the air around. Why mask in certain areas? It LITERALLY does not make sense. The treatment areas have knee walls as dividers and curtains. Not a private room like at Stony Point, but still private in a sense. Definitely not the "assembly line" they have in Roanoke. And the nurses are from Stony Point, so I recognized some of them. Judy, from my last infusion, was there, tag-teaming with my nurse for the day, Taylor. They were both great. Taylor reminded me SO MUCH of Sarah, my favorite nurse at Blue Ridge Cancer Center in Roanoke. We joked around, giggled, etc. Makes the experience much more bearable. 

While she was putting on her PPE, I was telling Taylor about how protocols are different at VCU versus in Roanoke. She looked at me confused. I told her they didn't put on a gown or face shield to administer my drugs, just the new set of individually wrapped gloves. She asked about this and that, and I even told her they didn't cover my port like they do here at VCU, no masks while accessing it, and to do labs they did the finger prick, not port access. The looks on her face said it all. I even found a couple of selfies that showed my port accessed with the needle and showed her. She took my phone around the treatment area to show others... that's how shocked she was by the lack of protection given to my port being accessed in Roanoke. She said they take that very seriously up there. That's quite obvious. She also had a hard time taking in the "assembly line" concept for treatments and that there was no sense of privacy at all in Roanoke. The look on her face said she was baffled. I don't think I have shared a picture of what the Roanoke location looked like. Here's a close comparison... but in Roanoke it was a wall behind the chairs, I'd say at least a row with 20ish chairs, then some in front of the nurses station and a few in the corner, and it was kept much darker, I guess for folks trying to sleep. No idea. But it was kinda depressing.... It was like they were trying to cram as many of us in there at once as possible. No privacy.

Taylor and another nurse come in with my chemo cocktail and do the double verifications like before, where they each take turns reading my information and the drugs and dosages. I do think I've seen some double verifications done at Blue Ridge, but not at the patient. I do recall a time or 2 when a nurse with a basket of drugs would go over to a nurse station and ask someone to verify what she was reading was correct on the screen, but that was it. Not with the patient. Not trading places. Not every single time either. 

Anyhow, Taylor was getting my Red Devil tubes ready and asked me if I had any ice. I wasn't sure what for but told her I had my water. She said they normally recommend it when administering the Doxorubicin to help constrict the blood vessels in hopes of preventing mouth sores. I told her they never told me that before... She was trying very hard not to say bad things....then I told her we could do ice in my water, which I would chug during that infusion, but chewing ice isn't good for my teeth. She went and filled my jug with ice. I jugged while she drugged. 💉

Aside from the long distance and the shuffling between locations, the process itself  today wasn't bad at all. Just long and exhausting. I've gotten better at old school driving since the GPS doesn't work on my "new" phone (pretty sure warranty sent a half-ass refurbished phone to me). Landmarks, mileage between turns, etc.... 

As I depart, I hand the valet ticket to the lady at the booth, same one that gave it to me originally. She was talking on speakerphone to someone and handed my ticket to another gentleman. He was pleasant and fetched my truck for me and wished me well. Can't say much for the booth lady. Hope her day got better.