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The lobby of the J. Phillip Citta Cancer & Infusion Suite at Community Hospital. This is where, after signing in for my appointed time, I sit and wait. And wait. And wait. For example, the doors on the left side of the picture open at 7:30am. You go in there to sign in. They might schedule 3-4 people for treatment at 8:00am and you're called in the order in which you sign in. So signing in right at 7:30am for an 8:00am appointment could mean the difference of being called right at 8:00am, or waiting for a while until they call the people who signed in before you.

I hate that most hospitals have the same kind of boring art.

 

I signed in at 7:30am for an 8:00am appointment. I wasn't called until almost 8:15am, which wasn't bad at all. I read.

 

Pre-meds first. I get 5 pills to take - 4 to help with reaction prevention and 1 to help stop the nausea. Then I'm hooked to an I.V. - once a vein is accessed [I have small veins and usually, they have to warm my arms/hands with heat packs to be able to access a vein] and I receive another pre-med, a hydrocortisone drip, which is also for the allergic reaction I have to the drug. That drip [which I refer to as my "appetizer"] takes about 20 minutes.

 

My best friend for the next 2-5 hours, Mr. I.V.

 

My infusions start out at 10mL/HR. They monitor me for reaction, take my heart rate, blood pressure and temperature every 15 minutes. If I'm not having a reaction, they double the speed of the drip. When I see that I am at 150mL/HR, that means I am in the homestretch and should be done in another 20 minutes or so, topped out at 240mL/HR. [that's the highest increment I work up to]

 

I'm a freak when it comes to dirty, germy or grimey things so naturally, I noticed a little grime at the bottom of my I.V. stand. It bugged me a little but figured that since it's not as though I'm rubbing the bottom of the I.V. stand on myself, I probably won't catch some weird disease.

 

Also, I've turned my book list into an actual "Page" rather than just a post. This way, I can keep it handy and possibly prevent quadruple reads of books I was sure I never read. It's located here. 

Our interview with Less Than Jake just went live on Revolt. The band just released GNV FLA and so we had a chat with Peter "JR" Wasilewski. JR answered our questions, threw in some funny remarks and did it smoothly. These are the interviews we love: bands who clearly love what they are doing and are always reaching for bigger and better things. In our interview, JR discusses the band's launch of their own label, Sleep It Off Records. GNV FLA is a fun album so I suggest you buy it and revel in it. Head over to Revolt to read our interview with JR by clicking here. Also updated this afternoon is our Reviews section. We have new reviews of music from Soilent Green, Bella Noir, Priscilla Ahn and Baskervilles.  My writers are amazingly talented, thorough and fair. Reading their reviews makes me so happy.  

About a week or two ago, I posted a link to a free .mp3 download on Revolt, courtesy of Converse. Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Santogold and N.E.R.D. have come together to record "My Drive Thru" for Converse. Since downloading the track, I have probably listened to it 50 gajillion times. It's an amazing track and I dare you to listen to it and not get sucked in. The free download is still available, with the music video and behind-the-scenes video coming in July. Seriously, go download it here if you haven't already. It's gotten to the point that I am embarrassed to have it show up so much on my Last.fm profile, that I've taken to going directly to Converse.com to listen to it. I think I even woke up with it in my head this morning. On the flipside of the topic of great music, I've been receiving such shitty music to review on Revolt. Thankfully, I'm not the person who has to review it. My poor writers. Some of it is just super atrocious, but I guess that's how things roll. Not every band can be an awesome band - it just sucks that so many of them believe they are. I'm all pre-registered for another round o' chemicals at the hospital this Friday. After this many times, you would think I would be used to it, but I'm not. The fact that I randomly have severe reactions 10 minutes into the I.V. being turned on is what prevents me from getting used to it. It's so random. With my pre-meds [4 pills, 1 20-minute I.V. drip] prior to the actual infusion, I'm not supposed to have my world-famous allergic reactions. Yet, every few times, I still have them. And so, I sit with dread, waiting for the first inkling of a reaction, which, by the way, is a severe burning in my stomach. Literally, within a minute of that burning, my entire throat closes and I can't breathe, swallow or speak. The past 2 times, I didn't have a reaction so I did pre-meds and then the regular drip and was done just under 4 hours. Yet prior to those past 2 times, I reacted and ended up being there for over 9 hours. Ugh. Such dread. When I hit the 1/2 mark of that the I.V. being empty, then I usually relax because the chances of a reaction are slim that far into it. So, yeah, one day maybe I'll not be so anxious about this. It's a part of my life and probably will be for quite some time.  

Revolt has teamed up with Shinedown for a pretty sweet giveaway. Here are the deets if you're interested: After the huge success of their first two studio albums, Shinedown is returning with their most vital material yet. Produced by Rob Cavallo [My Chemical Romance, Green Day] and featuring the hit single "Devour," The Sound Of Madness arrives on June 24th. To celebrate the release, Shinedown and Revolt Music Magazine are giving away a Paul Reed Smith SE One Guitar and an 80GB Zune .MP3 Player loaded with Shinedown's complete catalog. Click here to enter! In non-Revolt news, I am completely exhausted. Hosted a BBQ here yesterday to celebrate 2 birthdays, an anniversary and Father's Day for the fathers in attendance. I put this pressure on myself to make things perfect, so the days leading up to it were spent cleaning things that are pretty much always clean. The food was grilled and consumed just minutes before the torrential downpour hit, forcing everyone [and Winnie + another dogger] into the house. The birthday cake, Father's Day cupcakes and millions of other desserts were eaten inside where it was cool and dry. The thing that sucks the worst about having CD was not being able to eat anything at my own party. Also, I woke up yesterday with some random bruising. This is something my doctor needs to be notified on so I called him first thing this morning. He sent me for bloodwork again immediately and while it will take 3 days for results, he suspects my platelet count has dropped some more, hence the bruising. I go back for my next infusion on 6/27 and the cycle begins all over again: hope for no reaction during, then up to 10 days of severe muscle pain/weakness, a couple of days of nausea and not being able to get the chemical taste out of my mouth no matter what I do. The weirdest thing is that for a day or so after, my skin has a weird lemony smell that comes off of it. Not a pleasant lemony smell, but rather a chemical-infused lemon smell. That's kind of scary when you think about it.