Day of Reckoning - Gloria kept referring to today as the "day of reckoning" - one of those not-entirely-tongue-in-cheek affairs. Yet I don't think she expected it to start quite as early as it did. She slept quite well before her surgeries, but except for a few minutes here and there, there was no sleep after going to bed last night. Only later did we discover this is almost 100% likely to occur with Dexamethasone treatments. Yes, it was there in the long list of possible side effects. What we didn't know was it was one that was almost guaranteed to occur. The drug's purpose is to suppress nausea created by the cancer-fighting compounds, but an unwanted side effect is the recipient is alert with a capital "A!"

The first order of business was to make sure Gloria's port-a-cath was functional. After applying a topical anesthetic on the skin above it, the special port needle was inserted and then taped in place. Sydnee injected some saline solution and then pulled some blood from the port, proving it was working as intended.

The latter is a somewhat gel-like compound which in Gloria's case was delivered into her stomach/belly area. Its nature is double-acting, providing both a high initial presence of the drug in her system, as well as a slow-release aspect, making it effective for nearly a week. A downside is its thickness requires a somewhat large needle. So a patch containing an anesthetic was first placed on Gloria’s belly to deaden the immediate area. This was effective as Big G reported the injection was painless.

In addition to those two drugs, Dexamethasone was also administered through the line.

A significant amount of the infusion time for the two IV-delivered drugs was passed with Sydnee going over the possible side effects of the medications and also reviewing the contents of Gloria's "patient folder."

Sydnee asked if Gloria would like a snack and she chose peanut butter crackers, a combination I always felt was a perfect mix to leave a person feeling as if they had part of the Sahara in their mouth. But Gloria seems to like them.

Passing the time as the infusions continued, we learned that Sydnee is from Omaha. She had always been close to her grandfather, who developed cancer, and her spending a lot of time with him during his illness nudged her down the nursing path. She had started as a CNA and moved up to RN. She enjoys the comforts and benefits of working in the situation she has now, yet misses the adrenalin rush that working in the emergency area had brought and she may switch back if she becomes bored. Her hubby is in the military and she likes the fact that wherever he is stationed, she can find a job.

After I again swapped with Dave, I mentioned it to Sydnee. She laughed and said that they were SO spoiled there. It seems that whenever a drug-firm representative comes to visit, he will buy the employees lunch. This reminded me of when I was the chief engineer at a local electronics firm. It was a two-hour drive from Kansas City, where most of our vendors were located. Since the representative rarely left the home office at the start of the work day, they would arrive in Manhattan about an hour before lunch. After 30-to-45 minutes of business talk, it was common to be invited for lunch. I was OK with this because I could not recall any case where this situation influenced the items we purchased as that was dictated by the price and delivery of the parts and it gave me and my assistant more time to hear about new items being offered.

However, I'm unsure why a drug company would see this approach as being beneficial for them as most of these employees would not be the one making the decision on whose products would be purchased.

While I was in the reception area, Gloria received her Phesgo injection in her thigh. It was spread out over a five-minute period and she reported that it stung, but was not unbearable. Sydnee told her that some people need it over a greater span as the pain is too great.

One thing I failed to mention earlier, but Sydnee mentioned is, if possible, a person receiving chemotherapy should have their own bathroom. If that is not possible, extra care should be taken to assure there are no remnants of discharged body fluids left behind - flush the toilet twice, men should sit down, etc. - as otherwise other family members may receive "free," but unwanted, cancer treatments.

Gloria was finished sometime after 1:00 p.m. The plan for the future involves having lab work on Mondays just to keep an eye on how things are going.

Since the next cycle would dictate her next "big" day - Day 2 in the second cycle - would be December 24 and they will be closed that day, Gloria will probably be scheduled to have the next one nearer the end of the year.

We then left and took Dave for his very first Culver's experience. We ran into neighbors Mel and Joyce there and Gloria made arrangements to talk with Mel later as she wants to do a column on the Christmas meal and cantata he is involved in. Joyce asked me "on the sly" if I thought Gloria would be at the meeting of their group tomorrow as they were going to give her a small Christmas tree with candy decorations, but wanted to make sure she felt well enough to come. I told Joyce - who both of our girls had for 6th grade - that only time would tell, but I was pretty confident she'd be there.

We asked one of the servers to take our picture, partly to show how well the day had gone for Gloria.

Art, Gloria and Dave at Culver's immediately after Gloria's treatment was completed