Day 1 DONE

Greetings from Philadelphia.  I am sitting here writing this blog from our hotel suite (a big thanks to our parents for finding us a comfortable and spacious living area to recuperate) and Brandon is sound asleep.  I knew my husband was a strong, brave man but I can't tell you how proud I am of him, especially today.

We began our day at 8am, checking in at the oncology unit at Penn Medicine.  We met briefly with Dr. Staddon and off he took us to the infusion suites.  He introduced us to all the wonderful nurses we will be working with through this process and Brandon chose his infusion chair.  He chose a spot right in front of a big window overlooking Washington Square.  His area was fully equipped with tv/cable and 3 chairs right in front of him for Becky, Gary, and I, did I mention we had WiFi?  Within minutes we had 2 computers, 3 Ipads and 4 IPhones lining Brandon's side tables, we were ready! (once you go Mac you never go back)

Enter: Jillian, our nurse for the day.  We sure did luck out, Jill was young, energetic and most importantly informative.  She not only dished out medical advice but shared her own cancer story.  She too had osteosarcoma and went through the same process Brandon is experiencing now.  She was diagnosed at 15, went through chemo and had a knee replacement and partial femur replacement.  Dr. Staddon was her oncologist and Dr. Lackman performed her surgery.   She went back to playing volleyball, went to nursing school, and here she is back to Penn as a nurse in the oncology unit.  We really enjoyed speaking with her and hearing about her own experiences with this diagnosis.  She took great care of Brandon.  Other than our talks with Jill, frequent visits to the bathroom, a Jim's cheesesteak, skyping with the Tortorello's, we just basically read newspapers, magazines, emails and of course played Angry Birds.  But most importantly Brandon was upbeat and felt pretty well throughout this whole process.  After about 6 hours of being hooked up to the machine, Brandon had successfully completed his first day of chemotherapy.

Back at the hotel, Becky and Sam went and picked up some snack items, water and Gatorade.  Brandon has begun to feel slightly nauseous but a nap seemed to help.  Homecare came to our hotel and hooked Brandon up to some fluids which he will stay on for the next 48 hours.  We will then meet with Dr. Staddon for a follow up on Friday.

Until then..... all our love from Philly.

B&S