Clinical Trial #2 - Starts

Well, on Thursday I went up to Karmanos Cancer Center and spent the entire day there. The schedule was hectic to say the least. 7:30a I had arrived in the Cat Scan Area or Radiology, then after that Carm and I walked up to the Clinic, where I registered and waited at 8:40am. A little after 9am I was taken inside by the Nurse, who I really wasn't thrilled with, since her bedside manners was not the best. She admitted that she had not worked in that clinic before and was still getting use to it. This made me even more apprehensive about having her around me. She left and the Physician's Assistant Mary Jo came in and went over the new Trial. I was conerned about it, since the information that I read talked about biopsying of the tumor or skin or both, well Mary Jo advised that they would do the biopsy of the skin and that it would not be a big chunk of skin, just 2 little punctures in the skin, that would be about the size of a ball point pen. Great news to hear, I relazed a little more and we discussed my Neuropathy which has been diagnosised at Grade 2, but Mary Jo said that it wasn't since I am able to type on a keyboard and button my shirt, so this too made me feel better, especially after she dropped a dime on the exam table and told me to pick it up, which I did without any problem.
After seeing Mary Jo, Carm and I proceeded to have an Echocardiogram done, which wasn't too bad, except for when the Tech started to jam the wand into my left side at the bottom of my ribs and I started to roll back and she kept pushing the wand in, then I mentioned to her that it was hurting and she apologized. After the Echo was completed, we went up to the Phase 1 Infusion area to speak with Andrea, the Lead coordinator, about the schedule and to get blood and urine drawn. The trial starts on Tuesday, Sept 1st, and proceeds from there with me going back in on Wednesday for the 24 hour follow up. The good thing is I don't have to worry about collecting my Urine and taking it into them, YAY!!! All collections will be done there. We also got mileage forms, so that we can submit them and get paid for traveling and gas, which will help.
After seeing Andrea, Carm and I walked to the Registration Desk, so that we could get our Pass for the Children's Hospital PET Scan area. By this time I was starting to feel the effects of not eating or drinking since 9am, I asked for a Navigator to transport me to the PET Scan. I wasn't suppose to be there until 2:30pm, but I figured if I could get in early then so be it. This worked out, since I was taken in at 1:30pm and was out of there a little after 3pm. Needless to say both Carm and I where feeling a bit worn out and didn't feel like doing much when we got home.
I called Mary Jo on Friday to find out the test results from the Urine and she mentioned that shw would be calling Dr. Schaeffer's Office to get somethings clarified since she was having a hard time reading through the records. I confirmed the phone number and she also mentined that she would be calling Dr. Rubin's Office also. The Urine Test came back negative and she mentioned that in the Report for the CAT & PET Scans it was noted that there was a Lymph Node that had grown, pressing up against my bladder, which might be causing me to have problems with frequent urination. I asked her about this and whether or not it was something new that had developed or if it was there all this time? She came back saying that it was noted on previous reports and that it was being watched. Now, she mentioned that she would have to look into treatment options since she could think out Radiation and Surgery. The Radiation Option may not work, since I had Radiation Treatment in that area back in 2008. Mary Jo reassured me that she would have an anaser for me on Tuesday. I have taken the necesary precautions to help avoid embarrassing moments, but there has been a couple of times that I have had accidents. It will be interesting to see what options they suggest, since I do not want to go wround like this for the rest of my life cycle.
After discussing the Trial and the days that Carm and I would be traveling to Detroit and back I called Mary Jo back in mid-afternoon to let her know that I would be doing the trial, shew mentioned that she was able to get all the information that she needed from Dr. Rubin's Office and was still waiting to hear back from Dr. Schaffer's Office. I told her to call me if she had any problems getting the information from Schaffer's Office and I would see what I could do.
Well, here it is another Saturday Morning and I will be ending this here. More to come in this never ending battle.