Starting chemotherapy

I'm sitting at a laptop at the hospital and have just started the chemotherapy. First infusion is done and first set of pills taken. I feel good and no side-effects so far. Looking at the long list of stuff I could get it would be a surprise if something wouldn't kick in during the next days. But wasn't the treatment supposed to start next week? Yes, it was and this is what happened:

Yesterday morning I was supposed to check in at the hospital around 10-11 in the morning for the liver biopsy. At 9 in the morning I looked at my phone and had a missed call from the hospital. I called back and the nurse said the lab had wanted me in as soon as possible. I took a tooth-brush, tooth-paste and a Norwegian book and ran to the car. At the hospital they checked me into a single-person room with TV, fridge and a microwave oven. I wondered if they also had a waffle iron so I could make my own waffles. If my wife would bring me some dough, naturally. I was thrown into a bed and moved over to the lab area. I had to wait for half an hour before they pushed me into a room where a doctor was waiting for me with ultra sound equipment and some long needles. I don't need to go into the details but I got some local anaesthetics and didn't actually feel a thing. I was told I couldn't move for the next six hours to let the wound start healing. I would also have to stay at the hospital overnight.

Back at my room, I watched TV for the next six hours without moving. Good luck the Finnish broadcasting company (YLE) has so many great shows on during the day. That was a joke. At least they had Eurosport which sent live from Tour de France. I had the volume muted so I didn't actually realise that a Norwegian won the leg until I read it from text TV later.

In the evening the nurse said doctors may plan to start the chemotherapy already the following day. She didn't know anything more and I would get more information in the morning. The following morning the same message was given and that the doctors were working on getting the drugs ready. My wife who was at work and myself were a little bit puzzled and in the afternoon we asked if there was any specific reason for starting it so soon. There wasn't any other reason than that blood tests were good, biopsy had been good, the calculation of drug amounts had been done and there were spare rooms at the hospital. Simply, there weren't any reasons not to start it right away. Tomorrow morning (Friday) I should be able to get home.

By the way, the book I'm reading is "Circle's End" by Tom Egeland. It was published in 2001 and is in some ways similar to the famous "Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown that was published two years later. If you enjoyed the "Da Vinci Code" you will definitely enjoy "Circle's End". It has been published in many countries, also in Finland by Bazar.