The big meeting

Hello again fellow fighters!

As I am sure there are lots of people wondering what the day (Friday) was like so far. It has been really good. I dropped Steve off at work and started collecting my medical images and reports. After about 4 stops I was nearly done. Went home and prepped myself for the day having an opportunity to chat with a good buddy!

I swung by and picked up Steve and we headed off to the Cancer Clinic at RUH. We then struggled to find parking and after about 10 minutes of driving around we found a spot and then journeyed across the chaos of the parking lot to the cancer clinic. When we arrived we were signed in and got a parking pass so we can use the "Cancer Clinic" parking spaces and I started the screening process. I met with a registration nurse and answered some basic questions about who I am, then met with the pharmacy team and went over my medication history. Then it was off for more blood letting. After this I met with one of the nurses who explained what our appointment with our oncologist would entail. All in all it was very friendly and efficient!
We then met with Dr. Sami our oncologist. He was absolutely fantastic! We feel so lucky to have such an experienced and talented team of doc's leading us through this battle! We quite liked Dr. Sami's to the point way of speaking. He was very honest and frank but worded things in a non intimidating way. He was approachable, friendly and knowledgeable. I have been quite worried on this journey that we would be teamed up with a doctor that we did not mesh with. We were discussing today how happy we have been with each doctor we have worked with!
Another neat thing that was provided was a social worker to take notes on what was discussed so that we can focus on the doctor and not have to take notes. This was incredibly helpful! We also had a chance to speak with the social worker to get some information on different resources available to us.

So what was discussed with our oncologist? Everything. I will try to hit the high lights.
Chemo treatments will be starting next Friday. I will have the picc line or the passport put in sometime after my first treatment.  I will be doing chemo treatments every 3 weeks for 8 cycles so it will be 24 weeks of chemo. I will most definitely lose my hair, and likely my eyebrows and eye lashes.
Other than that the chemo will make me extremely susceptible to illness so I will have to be very careful to manage my exposure to germs. A common cold can give me pneumonia.
Side effects vary per person so I don't have too many details.
The doc says I can get on horses, probably walk and trot but no canter or jumping. Other than that I have to be careful to not bump or move the picc line.

We're working on ideas for what to wear to the clinic for the first day of chemo treatment; some type of warrior outfit would seem appropriate! Any suggestions?

Left foot'n & right foot'n
Steve & Alyssa