Here we are sitting in the waiting room at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. Now to explain Woody's eyewear...he has learned that some of the corona virus germs enter through the eyes and that people with glasses (lucky me) have more protection than folk who don't wear glasses. So Woody had me hunt down his safety glasses so he could wear those. He also broke into the M-95 masks that we were gifted some time back. So hopefully he was protected. One thing for sure, we didn't have to wait in public waiting aread for any length of time. We walked into the registration area and were taken immediately to a window to check in. Today, since he had no labs scheduled, we headed directly over to the clinic waiting area. We barely got seated before they called his name. The doctor came in pretty quickly. He talked to us then went out to get the nurse who does the injections to get her opinion as to whether he was a candidate for the injections directly into the melanoma tumor. The nurse was with another patient so it took a few minutes, but really not long before he came back in with her. He went to introduce her and I realized that we knew her. We used to see her in between seeing Dr. Sosman or when Dr. Sosman was out of town. She looked at the tumor on Woody's arm and thought that this injection treatment could be done for Woody. After that she left and Dr. Wyman talked a little more about the treatment. I'm not going to go into great detail tonight as I still don't have my head wrapped around just exactly what they are using, etc. The one thing that we were surprised about was the frequency of these treatments. The next time that we go to Vanderbilt, Woody will hav a PET scan, labwork, see Dr. Wyman and then Debbie Wallace will inject the tumor for the first time. Sounds like those appointments will take quite a while. The injection is done right there in their offices, but it takes a while to get the drug to them in the clinc from the pharmacy (been there done those long waits before!). There is a three-week wait before Woody goes back to get the next injection and then after that it is every two weeks. We hadn't realized the frequency of the injections. Dr. Wyman wanted the first injection to take place next week, but when I went to make appointments there wasn't an appointment open for a PET scan before three weeks. I let Dr. Wyman know about the delay and we will see if he and his schedulers will be able to work their magic and get Woody in sooner. But it looks like we are back in the Vanderbilt loop...with frequent trips there and back! I will say that our new wheelchair worked very well. I was able to get it into the trunk without too much trouble and the valet parking folk took it out and put it back in at Vanderbilt and I got it out when we got home. It is very helpful that the handles fold down making it easier to fit into the trunk. We were both tired when we got home. Woody especially because he didn't sleep well last night. I just because the trip just "gets to" me, I guess! I have his treatment all set up and will head down as soon as I publish this as we need to get it going again tonight a bit earlier than usual as we have to be up and out a bit earlier than today in the morning. He has an endocronologist appointment about his thyroid in the morning in Murfreesboro...at a place we haven't ever been so need to start earlier than we really need to in order to make sure we have time to find it (aka make a few wrong turns!). Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!
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