A Day of Chemotherapy

Today I am off school because we had parent/teacher conferences the past two nights.  Currently, I am sitting in the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes Jewish Hospital watching chemotherapy flow into my dad.  I consider it an honor to be here with my dad.  "Honor" may be a strange word to use, however, my parents have taken great care of me since I was a child so being able to help my dad is in a way an honor.  I am honored to be able to give back to someone who has given me so much.  This is dad's fourth treatment and he is an old pro at it.  Me, I'm just a rookie.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about today. What if I didn't ask the right questions or didn't know the answer to a question the doctor asked.  Luckily, so far I think we are doing pretty good.  Our day started at 11:15 with dad's blood draw and luckily most things looked good.  Dad will have to have a blood transfusion on Sunday because his hemoglobin is very low.  Hopefully, this transfusion will give him some of his strength back.  At 12 noon we met with dad's oncologist and discussed dad's condition and his inability to recover from his last chemo treatment as quickly as the others.  We learned that dad's last chemotherapy treatment was quite a bit stronger than the first two causing him to be so weak and sick.  The treatment he is receiving right now will be the same dosage as the last treatment.  Finally, at 1:00 we headed to the treatment area where he is now hooked up to the chemotherapy.  Dad is fast asleep and I am taking in the sites and sounds of the several others receiving their own treatment.  Overall it's been a very interesting day and I have learned a lot.  Please keep dad in your prayers as he heads into the next few weeks of recovery!!!!






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