Monday afternoon

I subscribe to the cockup theory of history, that is to say, events that have shaped our world tend to be as a result of a cock-up somewhere rather than down to good planning, good execution or even good luck.

Sue and I parked up at the hospital a few minutes before half past eight. I asked her for my appointment letter. She said that she thought I had it. Doh!
The door to the Centenary Wing was locked so we walked down to the Path Lab to be confronted by a huge queue of people (this was 8.30 on a Monday morning and some people has arrived at 7.00 to be at the front of the queue. Now there are some things I'd happily queue for, but a blood test on a Monday morning?)
The queue started moving and we eventually arrived at reception. Of course we didn't have the appointment letter, so I held the queue up even longer while they rang the Centenary Wing. Guess what? I didn't need a blood test after all, so we trooped back to the clinic.Doh!

After all the paperwork formalities it was upstairs to the treatment room where I was hooked up to a drip. The first bottle was radflush, the second was radweld and the third was the dose of chemo. This took most of the morning. I had a book and buried my head in that, stopping only to drag my drip on wheels to the WC. I asked the nurse what happens to all the extra fluid that's injected into my veins. You'll be pleased to know that my kidneys took care of that, which may account for the frequent trips to the loo.
I was given my drugs for the day, a cocktail of big pills and small pills, mostly white but with some pink ones thrown in for colour. The nurse then gave me a bag full of pills and potions and a handy chart telling me which pills to take and when.

We arrived back home soon after one.

Day one sorted. No adverse reactions. Tomorrow I get the big dose (almost an armful, as Hancock once said). It'll take most of the day to administer (no high speed fueling rigs like they have on F1) and if they haven't filled me up by close of play I will have to stay the night.

(the terms radflush and radweld hark back to the days when people did their own car maintainence, so substitute the words saline solution and premed if you'd prefer. It doesn't conjure up as good an image in my opinion)