Seattle from inside SCCA

Had my initial consult at the SCCA yesterday. Started early enough, 8:30 ish. T and I walked from the hotel to SCCA, about a mile. Checked in, got a green "credit" card for charging/tracking my movements/tests/etc etc. Went up to the 4th floor for check-in and didn't wait long before a nurse came and got us. Checked my vitals, measured me up, weighed me down, and then had me wait for a while. First to see me was the Dr.'s resident. Went through the whole story, leading up to that moment, then he did some checking of my strength in my leg, and checked the surgical incision. Talked a bit, then went to get Dr. Conrad, et al.

All that group came into the suddenly tiny room T and I were in and had me go over the story, again, then Dr. Conrad began to tell me what they thought the best course of treatment was; chemo, surgery, chemo, radiation. I will lose my hair. They said this is the treatment they've done on the handful(handful because it's a rare cancer, then it's a subtype of that) of cases in the past and it's been good. Dr. Conrad said if I was his brother or etc etc, this is the course of treatment he'd want them on. After that I asked if this was the treatment the other cases got; he said yes. They are all very optimistic that we got it early, it was small, and I'm young and fit. After a bit more talking most of the people left except for the radiation oncologist who spoke with us about the radiation treatment. She gave a good overview, then sent in the "Chemo Oncologist?" who spoke with us more about the chemo and how it works and why they recommend it. Talked about how I get to have a port put in me, and that the chemicals are effective against Sarcoma, but also burn. As in, if I happen to get disconnected from the chemo and it gets on my skin it will burn. I'd already basically decided I was going to go through with whatever treatment is necessary, so I went ahead and told them that was what I wanted. Then I talked to a nurse who talked to me about my next steps, and I pushed a bit to see if there was anything else I could get done since we were there.

That included a blood draw, and a MUGA which will be used to monitor the effects of the chemo on my little heart. Blood draw was uneventful, harrassed the nurse cause she wore a gown that indicated she was from breast imaging. Then went up for a MUGA, in this they irradiate(Technetium 99) some of your blood and give it back to you and take pictures of it in your heart. It's boring and you end up waiting and laying around for a while. You can't move under the Gamma cam, and it takes about 6 minutes for each shot; they take 3. The pictures aren't as cool as I thought, but I get a CD of them at some point...

After that we finally left, I'm scheduled for a PET scan on Friday. Went and had the big reveal with mother, and that leaves only a handful of people yet to tell. So far it's been kind of boring, the PET scan is also boring I'm lead to believe; lots of laying around.