Protein Practitioner

I went for my Herceptin treatment on Monday. This is the protein I'll be getting every week throughout this Season of Chemotherapy. There is a lot to be said about Herceptin--so much that next week will be Herceptin Week at The Big "C."

For right now, it's only important to know that there's no side effect from this treatment and that it only drips for 30 minutes. So, though I will go to the Chemo Barn every Monday until Thanksgiving, every 2nd and 3rd trip is a much lesser deal than the poison days.

Today I met Rose. She is the nurse practitioner I'll be seeing on the days I don't see Dr. Science. I liked her a lot--very nice, seemingly competent person.

Of course, I still don't know what a nurse practitioner is. That's kind of embarrassing. I've been treated by many of them, and yet, I'm not really sure what their medical training is or, even more disconcertingly, what I'm supposed to call them. What's their title? We don't call nurses anything but their first names. We're supposed to call doctors by the title Dr., what am I supposed to do with nurse practitioners?

She wrote me prescriptions. So. She's more than a nurse. Is this the only more-ness to her, or does she have other super-nurse powers? And what is her less-ness to doctors?

What's even worse is that Bryan and I were acquaintances with a nurse practitioner while we were in Korea. "Worse," I say, because that would have been a good opportunity to get to the bottom of this. "Hey, John, what exactly IS a nurse practitioner and what kind of school did you do to become one? And what do people call you?"

But I felt as uncomfortable about asking that question as I would about asking an African American acquaintance, "How, exactly, do you have to care for your hair?"

Nothing wrong with these questions! But it feels like there's something wrong with not already knowing the answers.

In John's case, I had extra reason to tread carefully. I'd mis-spoken once and said, "How long have you nursed?" and he bit back, "I haven't lactated in years." See? Who wants to risk offending this kind of sensitivity?

Will I have the courage to ask Rose (or is it Practitioner Rose?) next time I see her? Well. It'd be easier if one of you knew and just told me.

As for the appointment, Nurse Robin accessed the port on the first try (Praise God!), and I hardly even felt it because this time I had the numbing cream to apply an hour before hand.

They drew blood and did the work-ups for all my numbers. WBC's, N's, H's, Platelets--oh yeah, I got lots of numbers. All of which I wrote down not because I need to keep my own medical record, but because I think it's going to be interesting to compare them to future numbers.

They were all very high/good today (Praise God!), and so we proceed with the treatment as planned.

My friend, Jen, picked the kids up today and took them to her house, where they had a great time. My friend, Chris, picked me up and took me to the appointment, where we had a great time. It lasted 3 hours total, but we gabbed the whole time. It was like going out for coffee with a friend, only instead of drinking coffee I was drinking herceptin and instead of sipping it with my mouth, it was being pumped into a hole in my chest. Other than this, we may as well have been in Starbucks.

In all, a pretty great day. It didn't end that well--what with the hard-boiled eggs I managed to burn--but that ending of the story is for the next post. I'm sticking with my original conclusion: a pretty great day.