On Monday Jett received her first immunotherapy infusion in Florida. It was performed at the Regional Cancer Center of Fort Myers, a very nice facility less than 15 minutes from our Florida home. All went well, though she felt weak for two days afterward.
The big accomplishment, from my perspective, was that all of the arrangements could be made in a short period of time so that she didn’t miss a beat on her every-three-weeks infusion schedule. I had to find a facility, make initial contact, arrange with UMASS to get her medical records sent to Florida, arrange an initial meeting with a new oncologist, get the Medicare paperwork done and then, finally, schedule the infusion. Most of the work could be – and was – done while I was still in Massachusetts. But then I had to rely on this new facility to follow through.
They did.
So there was more than a little sigh of relief when we first visited the facility and we discovered that it was much larger than we expected (indicating, in my view, that they really knew how to care for a cancer patient) and when Jett met the new oncologist and declared “I really like her!”
The actual infusion – sorry, I neglected to take a photo – occurred in a very large, open infusion room with at least 32 infusion chairs. We didn’t much like the open concept – it was a bit like getting an infusion on the floor of a convention center. But the nurses were very nice and the infusion was only 30 minutes (actually more like 90 minutes, but I think the next one will be faster) so we can tolerate the openness for 30 minutes every three weeks.
So, great relief and a renewed confidence that the forces are in place to continue the cancer battle.