Addendum

Great news today! The MICU bear has helped another colleague successfully complete her breast cancer treatment (minus a couple of herceptin treatments). One of the respiratory therapist let me know that the newest breast cancer survivor was in the hospital and was only working until 11 am. It was 10:45 am and I had already missed her on Monday. Cut to me trying not to run through the halls of the hospital to find her. Well I found her and she looks and feels fantastic! She was overflowing with gratitude (such a great place to be) and showed me photos of the blanket her mother had made. She said 72 people gave her mom a pink fleece square and she embroidered everyone's name on the square and put the quilt together. How fantastic is that? We briefly chatted about weird puckering breasts after surgery and her chats with a plastic surgeon. Apparently fat injection is really frowned upon because it leads to lots of unnecessary biopsies because it looks like cancer on a mammogram. We briefly chatted about hair; she now has full scalp coverage! I let her get back to work. More survivors! Hurray!

Dubious Honor

You know how everyone laughs with the ridiculous list of side effects that are listed on medications? You know how when you sign up for a clinical trial on a vaccine they provide you with a list of all the risks? Well, the clinical research coordinator found me today to let me know that the study had provided her with an addendum to the list of the risks. The new side effect is:

Syncope

Although none of us know for sure, we are all pretty convinced that this is my contribution to the study. Yes, I am now the proud contributor of a side effect. I told the coordinator that we'll just have to wait and see what happens after the April injection. She told me that this is why they always tell people that sometimes in the hundreds of people only one person will have that side effect. Glad my contribution was not anaphylaxis.

Here's hoping after the April injection I'm not yelling timber.