Wednesday and it is oncology review day, so I am up early for a shower and a basic breakfast. I deck myself out in my Ben Sherman outfit and then order an Uber to take me to the hospital. I’m going solo as my partner is ill. The ride to the hospital is okay but we hit a traffic snarl as we approach the hospital. The queue for hospital parking is horrendous and there is a delay before the Uber drops me at children’s A&E. I walk through to the cancer unit and take a seat in the packed waiting area.
I get called by the nurse to be weighed. Its farcical really. I dump my bag and overcoat and step on the scales. Its a real ball park estimate but it in the right area. I return to a seat and start to read Jim Harrison poetry. The guy next to me asks what I am reading and we strike up a conversation about writing stuff and using that to get things out of our heads. I ask if he writes other stuff and to my surprise he says he us working on a poem, which he says he will not tell me what it is about as its personal. He tells me he read some of his poem to his wife and she burst into tears, At this point he became upset and so I shared with him that I wrote poetry and shared it with my poetry group it because my family find my stuff difficult. We talked about how it was good to get our stuff out of ourselves. We inevitably talked about our prostate cancer and that we were both doing chemotherapy rechallenge, he having done his first chemo in 2018, a year before me. He to was up for the fight and not satisfied just to sit and wait. He seemed to be doing okay so far. We were of an age as we both recognised the same writers and experiences. He is called into the consultant. On his way out he came and sat by me and we wished each other luck and shook hands and farewell. I wondered if as he was here on the same day if I might see him doing rechallenge on Friday. I get called in.
Its not my usual oncologist, I have clearly been moved onto an underling. It is bland upon bland, he is unconcerned about anything to do with my bloods, or the fact I have had a cold, or my account of my three bouts of Haematuria. He is happy for my to do my second cycle and gives me a blood form and the session pink slip. I leave and give the pink slip to the admin person who confirms the next oncology review date. My next review will be by phone unless I request a face to face. I leave the hospital with my goal achieved, cycle two goes ahead. I Uber home.
Once home I eat, read, do cross words, watch TV, and fill my drugs dosettes with the pre chemo steroids. The blog gets drafted and I take my night meds before getting myself to bed. I feel like I am getting over my cold and ready to move on. This is a fight just beginning.
