#7 No Shame in Bribery

I spent the rest of the weekend managing my fever with Tylenol and by Sunday evening it finally broke. First thing Monday morning, I called the office of Oncologist #1 and spoke to a triage nurse. I explained what happened at the ER on Friday and told her I had another chemo treatment scheduled for the following day and I wasn’t sure if I should proceed or what I was supposed to do after the bad reaction from Friday. She said she’d talk to my doctor and one of them would get back to me. No surprise here, I never heard back from them. Further confirmation that I needed a different oncologist stat.

My friend Melissa took me to my treatment the next day, it was now Tuesday, April 1st. Melissa’s mom is an oncology nurse and the two of them have been helping me work through every phase of this diagnosis and treatment. I can credit Melissa’s mom with my official diagnosis, as she told me to have my family physician order the blood tests specific to multiple myeloma as she felt pretty certain this is the cancer I was dealing with. I had the results of those tests even before my biopsy results. And having been through the trenches of medical woes herself, Melissa has been a constant source of reason, empathy, knowledge, and even some magic (more on this later.) 

Per the suggestion of her mother, Melissa stopped at Dunkin Donuts and grabbed two dozen doughnuts to bring to the infusion center in the hopes we could show the oncology nurses I appreciated them (which I did) but we also joked that maybe they would grace me with a little favoritism. No shame in bribery, it worked. 😂 Before we walked in, I told Melissa about the grim reaper shirt from the prior Friday and she was flabbergasted. Even more so when we walked in, and I shit-you-not, the receptionist was wearing it again. Yet AGAIN, I’m being welcomed into my cancer infusion center by the grim reaper. Cancer patients are already walking on a path with a dark shadow cast on it, the infusion center is the last place they should be smacked in the face with symbols of death. I was so ready to be done with this place.

I would like to take some time to mention that Melissa suggested some visualization techniques that I could do both at the treatment center and at home, to strengthen the mind-body connection and promote healing. One idea was to visualize Pac-Man chomping through my bone marrow and eating the myeloma cancer cells like they’re the yellow dots in the video game. She bought me a Pac-Man blanket and jammy pants to reinforce this visualization. You can even do them too on my behalf!

This conversation about visualization techniques led to me having some fun with ChatGPT to let AI create some images that I had been picturing in my head. I kept coming back to picturing myself as a warrior with armor, holding a light saber and busting through all the abnormal light chains in my blood.

This conversation between her and I about visualization eventually went down a rabbit hole and Melissa found a T-Shirt with a cat shooting lasers guns to blow up my light chains. She wore this T-shirt when she took me to treatment. Maybe Melissa could give the girl at the front desk a few lessons about images that are okay to where on your T-shirt when you work at a cancer center.

Ok back to the infusion center….After I got comfy in my chair, my nurse Terri and the PA in charge spent awhile asking about everything that happened on Friday with the ER, and after drawing my blood, they decided to proceed with treatment that day. I was again given Benadryl and Tylenol, I took my Revlimid and Dexamethasone pills and waited. While I was waiting, I decided to mention the grim reaper t-shirt to Terri. She shook her head in dismay, but also said she stays out of things like that, which was disappointing to hear. I mean someone has to say something to her, I probably should’ve mentioned it to the PA in charge. Can you tell I am having a hard time letting this go?

I didn’t have to wait long for the shots, Melissa didn’t even have time to rub my feet. 😂 I only needed two shots at this visit, the nurse inspected my belly for a new injection site and gave me both shots. We were on our way back to Sanibel where I again slept the entire rest of the day. But good news…. No fever this time, praise God.

P.S. A few days later, I took the opportunity to complete a review and survey where I vented my frustrations about Ms. Grim Reaper. I hope people actually read those things.