Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Meeting my new clinical trial nurse and battle scars

When you sign on to be part of a clinical trial, you are assigned a nurse who is there to hold your hand through all the phases of treatment. I called my nurse last week to speak to her about some of the side effects that I was having and found out that she no longer works for Ochsner. I was surprised and upset. She had promised to be there for me and now she wouldn't.

I have a new nurse. Her name is Melanie. When I was at Ochsner yesterday to see my surgeon, I made a date to meet Melanie. She was very sweet, and I am sure that she is going to be a big help to me. I just hope that she isn't so overloaded with new patients now and that I will not receive personal treatment. Unfortunately, she will be on vacation when I have my 2nd chemo treatment so someone else will be filling her shoes that day. That should not be a big problem. On the 19th I will be meeting my new oncologist as well as getting my next treatment.

My appointment with the surgeon was just a check up for him to see how the port-a-cath site looks. The port is used to administer the chemotherapy drips and to draw blood. It has already been used, so I know that it is working fine. I won't see Dr. Corsetti again for a few months. He wants me back after my last chemo, which will be around the end of October. He will then schedule my surgery which should happen about a month after my last chemo treatment. We are still hoping that the tumor will shrink and that I will be a candidate for lumpectomy. Dr. Corsetti is very confident that this will occur. I had a number of questions for him about my C, but he said that he will be able to give me answers once he performs the surgery.

Feeling really good these days. I have a week off of meds. Yea! I can eat again too!

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