August 16, 2010

Old friends

Today was my once-every-four-weeks treatment with Zometa, the bone strengthening drug I have taken for the past five or more years. It's given by IV infusion and takes about an hour. The whole time I have been on chemo lately, I've received my Zometa as an additional drug, given after the chemo. Since I am on a short chemo break for three weeks, I took the opportunity to see my friends, the Ambulatory Infusion Center nurses at Swedish's Cherry Hill campus. These are the women who have cared for me since I fell and broke my left femur in 2002, eight years ago this week.

Everyone was pleased to see me doing so well after my three-plus months on chemo. Nurse N chatted with me about everything in our lives and double checked that my hands are indeed recovering nicely from the hand-foot syndrome. Nurse J, the charge nurse who has cared for me the longest, noticed my hair loss but told me I looked beautiful in my pink flowered scarf and dangly earrings.

Seeing these women was good for my soul. Being treated at the Cherry Hill was good for my body also. Not only did they have my Zometa ready when I walked in (no waiting here!). Because I hadn't eaten lunch, the hospital provided a meal, not a cardboard sandwich. I ordered from the in-patient menu and enjoyed a taco salad with cheese, salsa sour cream and guacamole, small vegetable plate, iced decaf mocha and a small bottle of Perrier.

I am so glad that Dr G is flexible enough to let me receive treatment at Swedish instead of in the Minor and James infusion center. Should the opportunity to get Zometa at Cherry Hill arise again, you can be sure I'll ask to go there and see my friends.

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