home from hospital again...
Phew, am I glad to be back home. Got out on Monday afternoon. It was a very long day and I couldn't get out of there quick enough.
At the end of week 2/cycle 2 chemo I suddenly got a temperature - from no where. As well as a cough I couldn't shake. My temperature soared to 38 so I thought "well, this is it, better head down to Emergency" Got there and after a half hour wait, got into an isolation room where I finally stayed for the duration of my stay. Two nights and two days (if you include a day's stay in the transit lounge wondering if I am going to stay/leave).
Why is it that the first thing they want to do is to put a canua in your arm to take blood out of you. They lie and tell you that they can take the blood from the canula and give you the antibiotics all from the same place. What they don't tell you is that later on when the antibiotics (8 hour drip) is going into you and they need more blood from you, they have to take it from your arm anyway - another vein! It hurts like crazy to have the canuala put in. Last time they did that to me, my poor partner had bite marks on his hand that stayed for two days! (He won't offer my his hand to bite on in future)
They are soo painful. Then they ask - "do you want me to stop?" I am talking about the nurses and the other blood harvesters who come around for their daily rounds collecting from everyone. I thought that saying about a pound of flesh was crazy - they mean a pint of blood!
A doctor took my blood on Saturday night - she was absolutely wonderful. I hardly felt a thing. If they were all - always like that, I wouldn't have a phobia at all. However they aren't. A guy came around the next morning on his daily rounds and said - it will just take a minute - common love, let me do it just now. When I think of the conversation now, it sounds rather sexy - I assure you it was anything but! I held out my arm - trying to keep nice and relaxed - but as soon as he touched me with the needle it hurt and I screamed. Sure I felt like a baby - it really HURT. In the same vein as the previous night and he had to wiggle it around somehow cos he said "that's it" and I could almost hear the click when the needle fit in the vein just the right way. (Wow, I could have some fun with this as a sexy conversation - not what it sounded like at all)
So then the doctor came back again the next afternoon and informed me the sexy man did not get enough blood from me and she needs more. I said - "only if you do it please" she was delighted and did it after applying some numbing cream to my arm - in the same vein again. Still, it hurt a little this time - more than the previous night, however much less than the would be sexy man!
I was hooked up to the blood pressure unit that almost cut off my circulation during the night. The ECG which made a beeping sound when I rolled over and one of the leads came loose. The heart rate monitor that didn't like me taking it off when my finger got hot and sweaty. Then I also had the IV for the saline and antibiotics coming from my portacath.
Speaking of which - did you know that not all nurses are accredited for this unique but wonderful ingenuity? It took them 3 hours to find a nurse who would come down to emergency and access it to that they could put my antibiotics in, not before taking blood from me first. Even that hurt like crazy. I have had two chemo sessions and neither of them were any more than a pin prick. This one on Saturday night felt like she pushed the small needle way down to my chest bone. No wonder I screamed. Each time I got a needle I would cry like a baby - except when Dr E, did the deed for me. She was wonderfully gentle. I wish she would teach these other nurses how to do it.
So here I am back home again. No temperature, trying to eat as much fibre as I can - eating prunes, pears, apples, and what ever else I can think of and not working really well - still, early days yet. It is Wednesday and I have another five days before next monday when I have my third and second last chemo. I think I will make it, I am positive I will get through the next cycle better cos I know that I stopped taking my meds the right way this time. I have found the sheet I needed to and put it all onto my phone in memos so I know exactly what dosage to have for everything. I will be exact this time and take it all just so I can get it right and feel much bettter. It is all getting too much for me at times and I need to get my second wind to get my books in order.
Then I can think of a holiday at the end of November or at least a celebratory dinner with friends.
Cheerio all
Sandy