Your taxi will drop you at the front door of the clinic, the main information counter is straight ahead to the right. Just give them your name and tell them you are here for treatment with Dr. Baum.and they will instruct you where to go next. The nuclear medicine ward is on the 3rd floor in section D3. There will be overhead signs that say D3 once you are on the 3rd floor. There is no need to get there early on Sunday as no test other than a blood test will be preformed that day.
When you get to the nuclear medicine area you will be greeted by one of the nurses who will give you two keys - one to get in at out of the nuclear medicine section of the clinic and one for the safe in your closet. Your safe is pretty generous in size and can hold most electronics in addition to cash wallet and passport.
The rooms are fairly large - each has 2 beds and a sitting area for meals. There is a box on the ledge between the two beds that provides wireless interenet connection with the passcode that you will need to enter along with the SSID.
You will notice that most of the staff is either wearing crocs or
MBT shoes as they are easy to get into - you might want to bring your crocs as they are pretty cheap and can be washed.
No one goes to a hospital for the food and the room food is no difference. You will see many different version of German cold cuts and cheese for your meals during the day. There are several ways to augment your meals, food from home (cereal or other camping type food), 33 a restaurant on the clinic grounds, and a counter food area next to a convenience mini mart on the ground floor of the clinic, where you can by just about anything. Remember that you will not be allowed out of your floor for 48 hours once your treatment has begun so plan accordingly.
The first few days you will be go through the clinic to get various tests. Unlike a US hospital you will need to walk your appointment and wait. Some of the tests may have you out of your room for several hours and non of the waiting areas have any English reading materials so bring a book, an ipod or a
kindle to pass the time.
Your nurse will go through your plan upon arrival at the clinic as it will vary depending on your needs and the clinic schdule but a pretty good rule of thumb.
Monday - Kidney function test - PET/CT-GA68 Scan - Doctor conference
Tuesday - Ultrasound - Kidney function 2
Tuesday - LU 177 treatments
Wednesday - Y90 treatments
Uptake scans will typically be done a day after your treatment.
- Roaming around the clinic
The Bad Berka clinic was once one of the largest clinics in the former East Germany so roam around, some of the floors are underground and there are outside observation decks as well to look out at the forest. Before treatment you are allowed to be out of the ward until 9:30pm - Check with the nursing staff if your are required to be around for any test -- but you should be able to spend the first few afternoons outside the clinic.
Before you leave you will check out and get your final accounting -- You may want to go down on Friday to do this if you are up for it. If you plan on billing your insurance make sure to ask for a detailed billing. You can also ask to get all your scans on CDs so they can be read by your oncologist back home. This is also a good time get a cab reserved for your ride home.