Day 8, Cycle 1

Now where would you go if you were told to check in at 1501? You will probably have to enlarge this picture by clicking on it to see what I am talking about. But there are four windows each with 1501 on them. Just a little confusing? This is where Woody was told to go for his EKG. All we were looking for was the 1501...which we found...one had the blinds closed so we knew not to go there...but the other three seemed fair game! But there is only one that you are supposed to go to for checking in for an EKG...if one reads the "fine" print on the windows it does tell you...but we didn't look that closely! Woody had to be directed to the correct window.

It was another loooooooooooong day. We left the house a little before 9am and didn't get back till a little after 6pm. Woody drove to Melany's in Murfreesboro and then she drove us on to Vanderbilt. We got to Vandy right on time and had the EKG first and then he went to the lab for blood work...9 vials this time. Then we ate lunch. We were actually called back more than an hour prior to Woody's scheduled appt. time and put into the "inner sanctum" of a waiting room outside the doctor's offices. Our original research nurse introduced us to another research nurse and eventually the new nurse called us into a conference room to get all the empty medicine bottles and talk to Woody about how things had gone through this first cycle. This all happened prior to our "real" appointment time. Then we went back to the waiting room...and we waited...and we waited. Finally we were taken back to the room where we were to see Dr. Sosman and we waited...and we waited...and we waited...and...finally he came in a little before 4pm (our appt. time had been 2pm). He probably spent 10 min. with us. We were out and in Melany's vehicle by 4:30pm.

So far all is well with Woody according to the lab work today. His EKG was fine. I think that Dr. Sosman was very surprised when he found out that Woody took 12 mile walks on the weekends. I think at that point he didn't see any reason to even check the results of the EKG! He said that as long as Woody felt like taking long walks that it was ok...but for Woody to listen to his body and if it told him to slow down then slow down!

Dr. Sosman did talk to us about Woody's scans that he had prior to starting the study. I already had looked online at the results so pretty much knew what he was going to say. There are no new places showing melanoma and that the original places that they are watching had increased some but only a very small amount. He indicated that he was pleased that there wasn't more progression with the melanoma.

Woody's next appointment is next Tuesday...Dr. Sosman won't be there on Monday so the normal Monday appt. was changed.