The Final Day of Chemo

I [Andrew] went with Nadir to his final day of chemo.  This is how the day went.

0700am Wake up.  I can't believe I woke up this early.  This is not my thing.

0730am Jump in cab to go to the cancer centre.

0745am Pay cab driver with credit card; given the cab driver is from Vancouver, he is an ass about it.  Why are cab drivers in Vancouver so rude about taking credit cards?

0750am Talk to nurse about drugs (well, Nadir talks.  I just sit there).

0751am Nadir goes for blood work.  As before, I just sit there.

0759am Decide to keep notes and pretend I knew when I took specific actions up to this point (what I'm telling you is that all the timings up to this point were made up).

0806am So far I have thought about all of the various PD's and LGD's that one faces in life. A range of insurable and uninsurable events. PD = probability of default, while LGD = loss given default.  Getting sick is a low PD, high LGD event, which means it is the kind of thing that one should utilize insurance to cover.

0811am Nadir comes back from his bloodwork and is arguing with the nurse. [Editors Note: There was confusion about how many PK tubes were needed for bloodwork.  The nurse did no listen when Nadir explained to her that 2 tubes 2h pre-chemo were all that is needed until immediately before chemo.]

0841am The nurse gets Nadir a doctor who will fill his prescription again beforehand (because he could not get it from Costco). We head off to see the doctor at 0844am.

0847am Nadir is rude to the doctor's secretary because the doctor hasn't arrived yet. [Editors Note: Nadir wasn't being rude he was simply requesting a place to wait for the doctor, who was due to be in his office in a few minutes, while the rude secretary was trying to get him to leave]

0851am Doctor arrives to write Nadir his prescription. Doctors are more prestigious than bankers. No one hates doctors. Everyone hates bankers. Lots of people hate soldiers too. Do people like writers?  Not that I'm a writer or anything.  Sometimes it's frustrating to work at a job where everyone hates you.  Everyone loves doctors.

0851-0930am We go to get Nadir's new prescription from the pharmacy near the hospital.  I read a few articles in the Globe and Mail on my phone.  We talked about the Air Canada flight attendant strike.  Low-skill labour does not need to be paid >$40k per year.  The free market will deal with this union issue though by rewarding non-union employers.  The government really does not need to intervene.

0930am Arrive back at BCCA. I don't think Nadir was rude to the prescription people, but I was not a very attentive observer in this case. I got A&W for breakfast. Who the fuck puts breakfast food on a hamburger bun? Idiots. The price differential between Starbucks breakfast and other quick-serve is probably not viable outside of Vancouver where the prestige of Starbucks is not much of a draw.

0940am We watch a cute volunteer make tea.  I keep telling Nadir that he should hit on her, but he does not believe it's reasonable to hit on "captive" opportunities.  He likens the cute volunteer to a waitress.

0950am We go into the chemo room. They take some blood. Then we wait because the drugs are late.

1020am Still waiting.

At this point I forgot that I was taking notes.  So I'll ditch the timing estimates and just tell you what else happened.

So at some point the drugs arrived.  And so they hang the drugs up to a machine and then they start to flow into Nadir through his chest port.  Nadir asked the nurse if he could inject vodka directly into his chest in this way.  She did not recommend it; she said that the point of drinking was to actually enjoy the taste.  I am not sure she really knew much about drinking given her response.

Nadir and I started talking about Sons of Anarchy.  The plot of Sons of Anarchy is based on Hamlet, so I was talking about the plot of Hamlet and how Hamlet ends, and we were discussing how they could make the plot of Sons of Anarchy consistent with the end of Hamlet.  We also discussed my work.  By discussed, by the way, I mean generally I just talk.

At some point three ladies came in and one of them (an older Hungarian lady) began her chemo.  I kept talking about a ton of stuff.  At some point Kristen came by.  We talked about her new job.  We talked about how our Thanksgiving had gone.  We passed around photos of Thanksgiving.

At some point Kristen left.  They kept dripping more drugs into Nadir.  He began to get drowsy.  I kept talking.  At some point the nurse stopped and said, "I don't want to be rude, and don't take this the wrong way, but I just have to ask you a question..."

At this point we thought this was going to be an offensive question about the Army, but no.  "Are you in some kind of sales job?  Because I don't know anyone else who could just sit and talk for four hours."

Then the Hungarian lady and her friends joined in and noted that they had spent the entire time listening to our discussion about Hamlet and various other things.  Then began a long discussion about my job, our Thanksgiving, and other stuff.  The ladies were very nice and offered us turkey soup.  We declined, as at that point we were not hungry.  Soon after that, Nadir finished his chemo.  Yay!

So we went back to sit down in the waiting area, because Nadir had to wait for more bloodwork to be done.  I wandered off to go visit my boss from the Army, who was in the hospital that day.

When I came back, Nadir and Sarah were outside playing with Wyatt (Sarah's awesome dog) [Wyatt is a black German Shepherd] in the rain.  They were standing under a tree and throwing a stick for Wyatt.  When Wyatt saw me he ran up and hit me in the face with his head.  Ow!  When a dog hits you in the head, you're not allowed to respond in kind.  It's kind of like a baby.  My niece kicks me in the crotch from time to time (she's one year old), but I merely respond by holding her up to prevent her feet from reaching me.  But she's really cute.  Wyatt is really cute as well.

We threw Wyatt's slimy stick for a while.  Then, as usual, he broke it and Sarah went and got a new stick.  Then we threw the new stick for a while.  Then Sarah drove us back home to have some lunch (late lunch; by this time it was like 4:30pm).  Nadir sat in the back seat with Wyatt.  He is more tolerant of wet dog than I am.  Sarah had bumped someone's car and then left that person a note.  Then the person had taken the wax paper that Sarah had put her note in, put some dirt in it, crumpled it up, and put it back under her window wiper.  Did they think she wanted the wax paper back?  Did they think she was dirty?  Who knows!

We ate turkey leftovers with Sarah.  Mmmm, food.  It was tasty.  Then Kristen came back to the house and drove Nadir back to the hospital for his final test.  Then she drove Nadir back.  By the time Nadir got back, I was already asleep.  I can't wake up that early!  7:00am!  Jeez... Nadir went to sleep right away as well.

That was the day!

Thanksgiving Turducken