Stanford Infusion Therapy Center

I’ve been visiting the Stanford Infusion Treatment Area weekly for iron infusion treatments. Overall, my experience has been pleasant. There are very friendly and helpful staff members and the atmosphere is warm and calming. The only negative experiences I’ve had are with some nurses and their inability to place an IV. If you know that you’ve had difficulties finding a vein in the past, you should communicate that to staff in order to get an experienced IV placer.

No one likes getting chemo, but if you have to, you might as well get it in style! After months of schlepping down to Palo Alto to get infusions at the Stanford Cancer Center, they informed me they opened a new infusion center in Redwood City. I was thrilled because RWC is closer to my home, and wouldn’t have to battle the traffic there. But after my first treatment at the new facility, I think I would head over to RWC even if I lived further away! There are SO many reasons why this center far exceeds the one at Stanford’s Cancer Center on Blake Wilbur:
1) Free parking! And plenty of it! They do offer valet for $ 8 but there’s really no reason when there are tons of parking spaces up for grabs next to the building. That beats having to sit in that slow shuttle that they claim comes by every five minutes but somehow is never there when you need it.
2) Semi private chairs! At Stanford’s main center, you are in rooms staring at several other chairs of depressed people getting treatment. Sure, the nurses try to spruce it up and occasionally you get to watch them do a final chemo song and dance, but most of the time the experience is all sorts of sad. Here each chair is nicely partitioned so it’s almost like you’re in your own little nook with a flat screen TV. You’re still in an open space, but you can’t really see the other person next to you unless you walked around.
3) It’s QUIET! This will change as word gets out and the chairs get booked, but as of right now when I go for treatment it’s like coming to a spa. There’s maybe one or two other people and THAT’S IT. Seriously, I had to go back to the main center for a test and it reminded me what a zoo that place is.
4) It’s FAST! The fact there’s so few people means that check in is lickety split — you will be seated in your chair (or private bed) minutes after check in. Not hours, like I’ve sometimes had to wait at Stanford because they are so backlogged. That means an hour infusion only takes 1.25 hours, as opposed to half a day. And if you’re on the peninsula or city, that means you’ve avoided roughly 30 extra minutes of traffic getting out.
5) It’s POSH! You’ll seriously feel like you’re going to a fancy hotel, not getting chemo. The whole center overlooks the bay if you like views. There’s a piano playing music in the lobby (which they tell me is also at Stanford, but it’s too loud there for me to hear anything).
Essentially you get all the qualified nurses and treatment you’d expect from a world class cancer center but with the personal interaction of a local clinic. The nurses asked me to spread the word that they are now open, and I didn’t want to at first because I felt like it was my little secret! But now that I’m done with chemo, I’m ready to share the knowledge. Cancer sucks so do whatever you can to make your experience a little bit better! (You may spy me in their lobby telecommuting… with free high speed internet and a cushy setting… why not?)