Wasn’t quite routine today. The first time Kathleen had Oxaliplatin she discovered she has an allergy to platinum. I guess buying her nothing but cubic xirconium jewelry over the years hid this little detail. Anyways, not a big deal as it means she just gets some shots ahead of time to deal with the allergic reaction. For whatever reason, it didn’t do the trick and she started to get some nasty effects. First a few hives, then a red nose and her tongue started to swell. On its own, its a little scary. Combined with a double dose of deximethesone (steriod) which amps up her emotions it was kind of tough on her. But amazing nurses. Its not like kath was freaking out, she was just a little scared. They know how to talk in a calming way and once the new meds took hold, all was better again and back on track. They are great at what they do.

Lots of visitors today. Our friend Diane is here from BC to visit and Kath’s friend Maria came to have a quick chat, as well as Elaine. A grey day outside. Kind of nice to watch through the big windows while ‘everyone is dripping’ as the nurses say.

Even with the allergic reaction, all went relatively quickly today and we got out at 4pm. A record. We tried to shorten it a bit by being a little proactive, but didn’t quite work out. Before she can take one of her drugs, she has to give a urine sample to test kidney functions. Sometimes that can be an issue timing wise, so they sent us home with a number of bottles that she could fill in the AM and then bring with her to get tested. Usually that takes an hour, so we thought if we dropped it off at 8am, all would be ready for 9am when Kathleen got there. As I had just finished a run, I thought I could just literally run it over since we are just one and a half km away from the hospital. Parking is always tough, so literally running it over is less hassle. Well, apparently no. In retrospect, I guess it did look a bit odd. 2m tall sweaty man dressed all in black, with the exception of freakishly bright neon yellow running shoes, coming in with a brown paper bag containing a bottle of pee. Normally, they have labels ready for her lab work and expect these things, but they got mixed up with the previous lab work. Plus the person working the desk was new and didn’t know who to call. What I thought would be a quick drop off changed into an increasingly longer parade of people each one making me feel just a little weirder than the last. By the end of it, I felt like I might as well have been wearing a giant purple squirrel suit. I mean, as each person would come out of their office, they would do a double take on me wondering, what the hell is jogger guy standing here with a crumpled brown paper bag. In the end, the secretary did take the bag/bottle, but by the time I got home, they were on the phone with Kathleen saying they could not accept the sample as they didnt know who I was. Oh well. Wont bother next time 🙂

It was really great to see Maria who was looking so much more energetic than the last time we saw her.

—Mike