Happy hour at the Hotel Chemo!

Yesterday 5 March 2008 I started the scheduled post operative ECF chemotherapy at the Zita Mary Clinic, Calvary Hospital, following my Ivor Lewis surgery on 5 February 2008. This will essentially be a carbon copy of the drug protocol administered prior to the surgery...three cycles, each of three weeks, nine weeks in total, with the three drugs applied, Epirubicin, Cisplatin and 5-Fluorouracil [ECF]. In one way it may be easier because I have already been through it once before, on the other hand it may be more difficult because the side effects are cumulative, I have been weakened by surgery and I am just getting tired of the whole show. I say to myself this is the last phase.
The staff at the clinic were the same happy team, Teja, Noel and James. I was there from 09h00 until 16h00 and came away with my 5FU continuous infusion pump as before. It will get changed every week. Blood tests will be mandatory at the start of each week and the results must be good for me to continue.
There were two of those moments of coincidence during the day. One of the other patients I recognised as Joe, a Samoan guy I knew from taxi driving days. he has pancreatic cancer which is spreading. He is thinning down and pretty sick. Another moment was when another patient was lining up his next appointment dates and was able to fit them around his son's wedding. No such luck for me!!!