Friday, May 13th, 2005: Leela finished up her third course of chemo today. I took some pictures of her during infusion, but it will take some time to get them up on the website. She’s been having more trouble with nausea this round so we are medicating her pretty regularly.

For those of you who are imagining a drama-filled process, getting chemo drugs is a boring business. The first day of a cycle involves more than 5 hours of infusion, which starts only after we have been in the hospital for two to three hours already. Yesterday we arrived at 9am and were finished at 5:15 pm. The day starts with a wait in what else, a waiting room. Then Leela has her vitals checked (weight, height, blood pressure, temperature) and her blood drawn to check her counts. On Thursday they were once again back up to pre-chemo levels. Then the nurse and oncologist examine her, and it’s off to the Ambulatory Infusion Room on the Hematology/Oncology Unit. We have usually had to wait an hour or so for the pharmacy to prepare Leela’s chemo drugs – they are made to order and are based on her height and weight. In the meantime the nurse starts things off by infusing the anti-nausea medicine, Zofran. Once this starts it means that Leela is attached to an IV for the next 5 ˝ to six hours. Wherever she goes so goes the IV pole.

Sometimes, we try and take a stroll around the floor. Leela rides on the base of the IV pole while we push it around – it’s a fun ride. During today’s infusion, Leela forgot and starting to race ahead while attached to the IV only to be snagged by her “leash”. The catheter got tugged and she clutched her dressing and started crying. Geetha was afraid that she might have dislodged her catheter so did a quick check for blood and then raced back to the infusion room. The nurses quickly checked the site. Her stitches were still in place and they were able to draw blood from the catheter into a syringe meaning that it was still lodged in the vein and everything was OK. If not, she would have needed another surgery to reinsert it. So Geetha decided there was too much drama and Leela needed to watch more TV instead.

Leela spends most of her infusion time sitting in a chair watching kids’ shows on TV. If there was just one TV in the infusion room it would be bearable, but the room has six infusion stations each with their own TV. The cramped quarters means that everyone can hear everyone else’s TV. The equilibrium in this prisoners’ dilemma-like situation is for everyone to turn their TV volume to the max. The first time I experienced this, I found it impossible to read with three or four different TV shows competing for my auditory attention. So Thursday I brought my new mp3 player. This strategy allowed me to crowd out the TVs in the room and do some reading while listening to some good podcasts.

Tonight Leela has been feeling pretty well. She went straight from chemo to the Udipi Palace to eat idlis. Returned home and headed out to the park with friends and her Oma and Opa. Not bad for a kid who just received two days of chemo. Hopefully things will continue to be as smooth in the next few weeks.