World Record Chemo Infusion

I was just sitting here this morning thinking about my chemo infusion that I received yesterday afternoon and how unbelievably smooth it went for the first time ever. After multiple frustrations on MaryEllen's part and having to rearrange multiple schedules, the nurses between the two offices that Dr. Ye uses during the week, finally determined that the only way we could see the doc this week was to travel to the old office we used to visit.

In December or November or when it was, Vista Oncology opened this nice, new state of the art office with bigger waiting rooms, bigger chemo suite, more overall rooms to see patients in and in general just more toys like flat screen tv's, etc. Well, we have seemed to notice that while the bells and whistles are nice, everything has been getting backed up and sometimes I get lost in all the hustle and bustle, sometimes spending up to 3 or so hours for an appointment that should realistically take half of that.

So anyway, this week we headed over to the old office which is still in function, it's just about twice the distance to drive from our house . Turns out though, what we thought was going to be a pain in the butt, turned into one of the smoothest appointments we have ever had. We got to the office, which is usually a packed waiting room to see two other people there. It took the nurse about 5 minutes to get to me and do vitals then stick us in a room to meet with the doc. After a brief meeting with him just to check how things are progressing, we went straight back to the chemo suite where Dr. Ye started my IV personally and we were on our way. The premeds were out in 5 minutes and the whole process was over in no time. It was just so refreshing.

Just goes to show that bigger doesn't mean better. The old office basically has one receptionist, a regular nurse taking vitals, a chemo infusion nurse and a nurse taking and running the blood results and Dr. Ye of course overseeing everything. In contrast the "new and improved" office has multiple nurses I have yet to meet, receptionists I haven't seen before and often people sitting at a desk not appearing to much other than busy work.

The only problem with this perfect scenario is that Dr. Ye only works out of the West Side office on Tuesdays and maybe one other day, otherwise he is just caught up in the madness of the new office. So I think I am going to try as hard as I can to make it on my planned chemo days to the office that seems to function.

It was a pleasant surprise yesterday to walk out of getting chemo and not being the least bit grumpy. I even went home and cooked a full meal for MaryEllen and myself, which isn't really something I have done in months, of course it didn't hurt that she was in a bad mood and I wanted to try to do something nice for her.

Overall though, round 3 down and promising ideas to make the future go a little smoother on chemo days.