PRRT!!!!

Checking to see if my circulation has been cut off!

I've talked to a lot of people and told my PRRT story a few times since I've been home, but I haven't posted here. So for some of you, this will be repetitive.

I was told to report to the hospital between 2 pm and 3 pm on Wednesday April 25th. I figured there would be some scans and blood work. We walked apprehensively up to the 4th floor and waited to be buzzed in. I recognized one of the nurses, Martin, from his nametag and picture. I told him I was Kristin, showed him my letter, and he brought me directly to my room. My spotlessly clean, huge room! He said he would be back in about 30 minutes.

He came back in 30 minutes (of course) and we went over menu selection for my stay. Seriously. I had to choose breakfast lunch and dinner for each day. And there were so many choices! Martin then went over the details of the next few days. Amino acid drip would start at 9 am Thursday, then about an hour later I would get my PRRT injection, and then the amino acid drip would continue for a few hours. Cat scan/Oscan Friday morning, discuss results with doc Friday afternoon, then get out on Saturday morning. When Martin finished his spiel, I said, "I'm sorry....what did you say was going to happen today?'  "Blood work".....that's it? He said that technically I did not have to spend the night at the hospital, as long as I was back in the morning for treatment. Since I had procrastinated in getting there in the first place, I decided to just stay there so I didn't have to go through the stress again in the morning.

Wednesday night my dinner arrived at 5:30...delicious gnocchi that Martin had selected for me. So far, this hospital stay was way better than my previous hospital stay. Thursday morning, breakfast arrives at 7:30 am. Croissant, roll, honey, yogurt, oj, banana, steroids. I eat a little bit of everything....don't want to have much in my stomach in case I experience the nausea they tell you about for the treatment. I worried about taking the steroids, but I quickly looked it up and saw that kidney protection is one of the features of steroids. So I gobbled them up. Martin said "Three today, two tomorrow, and two Saturday." Okeedoke then.

The Doctor, Dr. Antwi, comes in to introduce himself and check on me. He says he'll be back in a while to put in the IV. I tell my family that they will need to leave while he installs the IV. Dr. Antwi returns with this huge cart of medical supplies, I send Mom, Dad and Rod out into the hallway, and THE DOCTOR INSTALLS THE IV. Not a nurse. THE DOCTOR PUT THE NEEDLE IN MY VEIN! They never do that kind of stuff. That's when I knew we weren't in Kansas anymore. He then put what seemed like 15 yards of gauze around his handiwork, and I swear my arm turned purple. I kept saying "I have no circulation in this arm!" Plus, I was unable to bend it, which was a tad uncomfortable. Martin came in to hook up the amino acid drip, and gave me some Zofran to combat the potential nausea that accompanies the amino acids. No nausea or discomfort.

The pink thing you see is just the little port where they injected the Lu-177. Mummy arm!

I sat there with the fam for about an hour or so, maybe closer to 90 minutes. I was a little nervous at that point, so my memory is not so great. Sue can chime in on the details.

They came in to bring me down for the radiation injection. I want to say Pierre was the one who took us down, but again, memory fails me. I went down to the basement with one other patient, a man who was either German or Swiss, because Pierre was speaking German to him. We get to the basement, and I think they took him in first. A few minutes later, they came to get me. We go to a little room and Sue has to wait outside, but she can still see me. The nurse sits me down and explains the procedure. She says "If you have to vomit, vomit in this bag. But hardly anybody vomits." Then Dr. Antwi comes in and starts unravelling my mummy arm. "You might feel some warmth after the injection, but once you feel heat in your head, that's the worst of it and then you'll feel better. But hardly anybody feels warmth." Alrighty then.

He takes the Lu-177 out of its little black box, and I pretty much turn away at this point. I'm not a fan of injections. The syringe looked pretty darn big, so they were injecting quite a bit of Lu-177 into one of the many ports on my iv thingy. I did not feel nauseous, I did not throw up, and I did not feel warm. The injection itself probably took less than 30 seconds?

They ask me if I feel okay, I say yes, and off we go. I walk out into the hallway, and a person who is walking down the hall towards me literally jumps out of my way when they see me come out of that room. I was given quite a wide berth.

We get back to the room, I say goodbye to the fam, and 2 days of utter boredom ensue.

The food was delicious, the TV was awful, and the nurses go home at 4:30. The last person you see for the day is the person who collects your dinner tray. You're then alone until 7:30 am when someone brings you breakfast, drops it behind the shield wall, and runs like hell to get out of there!

That little half wall is where they put my food before they run away. And you can see my toiletten! 

The wifi was spotty at best; I guess it's tough getting a signal through two lead doors. The room is on the west side of the building, and the sun does not set until 8:30, so it's sunny and hot in your non-air conditioned room. (Can't have any of that radiation getting into the HVAC system!) July is going to be challenging....sunset at 9:30, and Swiss temps generally in the 90s. Who knew it was practically tropical there?

That's all for now.  This post is already too long, but hopefully you made it through.

As for results, won't know for sure until we compare scans taken immediately after injection with scans in 8 weeks. The doctor said the my tumor uptake was good...okay, he said amazing, and he's never seen such good uptake, especially in the little tumors in the peritoneum. So yay, you little overachieving tumors!