Good morning! The weather is beautiful this week and I have been completely remiss on blogging. Why? Because my treatment has been very routine and boring up until last week...
I think it's safe to say that even nurses have bad days, and mine did, but that was just part of what made Friday a bit to be desired.
Mark dropped me off at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics at about 7:30 am, my usual time to get there. I got my blood drawn by the lovely women in the lab, got my vitals checked, and was asked if I needed to go to the bathroom. I did. I went. It was the week I see the doctor (every third appointment) and so they ushered me back to my exam room, I removed the proper amount of clothing and waited my turn to be seen. I noticed the Times magazine in the magazine holder and decided to read about Dr. Oz's Cancer scare. It was all about polyps in his colon which immediately made me have to go to the bathroom, so back into my clothes I jumped and I hit the toilet one more time. Mildly annoying.
After my exam (CA125 at 17, yay!) I went over to the infusion center to wait for a bed. At 10:30, I was finally given a room. And a roommate. I haven't had a roommate before. I'm not guaranteed a private room and it was probably my turn to have one. He was a very nice young man from Ethiopia. The nurse that was assigned to me I had never had before. I've spoken to her before and I'm sure she's "checked" on me once or twice, but it took her 3 tries to finally get my IV in. That means 3 separate IV kits, 3 separate sticks and lots of running around before the juices were flowing. These juices flow for about 7 hours.
My wonderful friend, Jackie, called me and we negotiate lunch, Buffalo Wild Wings. While I waited for Jackie and food, another friend of many years stopped over. Shawna stayed for lunch and then had to get back to work but not after many laughs and stories. Once Shawna left, Jackie and I settled in for the afternoon. The TV turned on. The Ethiopian gentlemen to my left must have wanted to check out what was on. Unfortunately, he had tuned it to that Untamed Sports channel. Who knew that would be the channel of choice for my new roommate. So we watched a few fishing/hunting shows and then Jackie and I started growing tired of it all. The deal-breaker was the 30 minute program/info-mercial about Hank Williams (Senior not Junior) and it hit me...is this guy next to me really watching this channel? Really? Or have we just been watching bad television for the last 3 hours purely out of a misunderstanding? Nothing was ever confirmed, but I finally asked him if he was watching the current show and he looked at me like, "No, Lady! I have no interest in any of this crap!" And I turned to something much more worth watching...The Ghost Whisperer! '
After a bit of flipping, flopping elevating and the like (the usual routine) I was released to go. After a nice ride home from Jackie, I was home about 7:30 pm. A long day.
So sorry about the needle sticks. When I was having Violet, they placed a "just in case IV port" that took them five tries to get and, here's the kicker, it wasn't even used. And I bruise like a peach.
ReplyDeleteSo, the moral of this story is if I'm ever stuck in a room with you for seven hours, we'd better just talk, right? Glad to have gotten the chance to see you so many times in the last few days! Makes me all tingly!
Those IV sticks are no fun. Ask for the person who does this best, if you get someone who misses. There's usually someone who's really good at it. The repeat sticks are not just uncomfortable, they are hard on your veins over time.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are tolerating the chemo quite well - given that you are lunching on Buffalo Wild Wings. May your treatments stay uneventful, routine and even a bit boring - except for knocking out those cancer cells once and for all.