Dec 29 2008
Circus of Cancer website is wonderful
Through a good friend, I just watched a YouTube video which led me to Wiki for more information, which led to a link, which led to another link. At the end of it all, I came upon a marvelous site: www.circusofcancer.org. For those of us who learn by seeing, I highly recommend visiting Circus of Cancer and going through all the chapters in the photo album. It may enlighten you better than my words have.
I will react to just a few isolated photos and commentary which struck a chord with me.
The accommodations for chemotherapy. My partner is in the middle of his third round and we have seen good changes at the local hospital where he has received his chemo (treatment is planned by a CLL consortium hospital, but administered close to home.) For the very first round, he was crammed into a 20 by 50 foot infusion room with no privacy, one visitor chair per patient – all of us sitting hip-to-hip with the patients – and two ceiling-mounted televisions blaring the most obnoxious daytime programs imaginable. Further insult was that his infusion arm rested on a pillow with a blood stain. That just heightened the angst of it all.
Happily, for rounds two and three a new wing is finished. There are spacious areas similar to emergency room areas, with privacy curtains, enough room to wiggle, and individual television sets. Furthermore, there are many windows and peaceful works of art. However, the treatment chairs are still pretty much as shown at the Circus of Cancer site. Nevertheless, as also stated on that site, if one does a little fibbing and finagling, he can score a real hospital bed for the infusion. As my partner is the CHAMPION of fibbing and finagling, he is very comfortable.
Nurses and personnel for chemotherapy. Wonderful. Every single one of them.
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Going to the bathroom during chemo. This is an activity which we didn’t consider beforehand. How does a patient go to the bathroom during a possibly six-hour long infusion? Catheterization? No. One must figure out how to sit up, stand up, disconnect the electric monitor, and pull the entire apparatus to the potty. Then the challenge is how to pull one’s pants down and take care of business without messing up the tubes, needles, and etcetera. This is why it is a blessing that all the chemotherapy staff are likely to be wonderful, as discussed above.
I am so glad that Kelly Corrigan created the site, Circus of Cancer, which plainly and honestly shares her experiences. Even more so, I am thankful for her happy state of health. God bless ya, dear!
