Wed. evening

Well, you know how I said before that Dad's oncologist is a take charge person...well, he has taken that to new heights! Yesterday, he was on the phone talking to the hospital to find out what happened the last time (the vaccuum in the chemo bag that took an extra 2 hours to drip) and to make sure that it didn't happen again. I think he reamed out a few people. And then I guess today he was still on the phone to the hospital because the person that he had put to task to find out what happened, hadn't gotten back to him. Dad's doctor came into the chemo room today and told us that he was even trying to reach one of the nurses at home today to find out more..and he wanted the pharmacist at the hospital to get involved. He was upset because he had checked the records of Dad's previous visit and there wasn't anything written about the malfunctioning of the drip bag....so he was still trying to get to the bottom of this.

Well...I got a phone call from some head nurse at the hospital this afternoon, telling us that they had talked to the pharmacist and she would personally see that things go right this time. And...she said that usually you have to be physically present in the hospital before they order up the bag of chemo (it's so expensive that they can't afford to have a "no show") but that we could just give her a call before we left the house and she would have it ordered and ready so we wouldn't have to wait so long. Also...she said that they had a room already reserved for Dad...room 505. I asked if we needed to stop at admissions or at the emergency room (where Dad had to register the last time...at admissions, that is...but if it would have been after 7:00 he would have had to go through the emergency room). The nurse said that he didn't have to do that this time...just come up to the 5th floor (the oncology floor) and go to room 505. I asked if we should stop at the nursing station to tell them we were there and she said "no...just go straight to the room". I called Dad's oncologist's nurse and told her to tell his doctor that things were looking good for tonight and I told her the details of pre-ordering the chemical and reserving the room and his nurse said that NEVER happens! She was amazed and said she would tell Dad's doctor.

So at 7:15 tonight, I called the head nurse on the oncology floor at the hospital as we were leaving home and they got the Ara-C ordered, we arrived at the hospital at 7:30, went straight to the room, and within 5 minutes the head nurse was there. They took Dad's blood pressure and got him hooked up by 7:55 which is absolutely amazing!! And the head nurse had taken it upon herself to call Dad's oncologist's office and got a dose of zofran to give him because I had mentioned that Dad was a bit nauseated around 6:00...so she had that all ready and up from the hospital pharmacy. Dad's doctor is amazing...he really turned things around here!!!

Dad is doing fine. He was a bit nauseated around 6:00 and so he took his alternative anti-nausea pill then (that's when I had called the hospital nurse to make sure that that was ok to have that before his treatment tonight...and it was). That pill did the trick and Dad ate some chicken noodle soup for dinner.

So we should be out of here tonight around 11:00 or so. Dad's in a comfy hospital bed watching tv now and doing fine. I'll post sometime tomorrow morning after his 8:00 chemo treatment. Actually, his treatment tomorrow is only a 15 or 20 min. dose of steroids.