Friday, February 5, 2010

I got a call last night that my bloodwork came back and I was low in white blood cells. I had to come in an hour earlier to have the blood test done again. UGH! I lay in bed last night and visualized a factory with pipettes dropping down from above, squirting white blood cells into test tubes and then somehow the test tubes squirted the cells into my body. I kept up that factory work for some time, until I fell asleep and every time I awoke last night I started the production line up again. I have no idea what white blood cells really look like, but in the dream they looked kind of like sperm squirting from the ceiling! WHAT??!!!

We got to Providence at 8:30 and I had the blood drawn. Then we went back to the treatment room and waited. The news came back pretty soon, not only was I good to go, but I had way more than what I needed to pass! YAY!

So I got my second treatment today, two down, four more to go.

I really didn't want to have to delay my treatments. I want to go to Sweden later this year and I want to be in shape to go. That means I have to stick as close to my projected schedule for chemo (finishing up at the end of April if all goes according to plan) as possible.

Oh, I'm watching a show on Michael Jackson (don't ask me why) and they just talked about him getting propofol. That's what the anesthesiologist gave for my surgery. As a matter of fact he actually said to me as he administered it, "now I'm going to Michael Jackson you...." And the last thing I said to him was "okay, just make sure you remember to wake me up!" OUT!

Some day I will relate here some of the "intereting experiences" I have had with my nurse at chemo. Suffice it to say she is scatterbrained, not good at multi-tasking and sometimes borders on dangerous. Lynne thinks she is burned out...she maybe right.

When I'm all done with treatment I'm going to insist on meeting with the head of the program to give my feedback and suggestions for improvement. I'm going to have to address the concerns I have about this nurse.

In the meantime, I have to stay on my toes and pay attention at crucial times. Today the benadryl hit me hard and I couldn't stay awake all morning. Usually it makes me dopey and I feel kind of sick, but I don't sleep more than a few minutes. Today I almost fell asleep on the toilet about mid-morning. I really had to use all my strength to fight it and get up and back to the treatment room.

Sandy was there for the crucial times to make sure things were done right. I am so lucky I have her. Today they were having trouble drawing blood from my port after my treatment, it wasn't flowing right. The nurse tried some things, including having me cough, which I really didn't want to do because I didn't want to contaminate the area by coughing near it. Finally, Sandy said, "take a deep breath." I did and the blood just flowed. I kept taking deep breaths and they got all the blood I needed.

Later Sandy told me that the most common cause of poor blood draw is repositioning...the needle has moved and is resting against the wall....the easiest thing to do to get it to move is to have the person take a deep breath. My nurse had me leaning forward, coughing, dancing and rocking in the seat....never suggested I take a deep breath.

As I said, I'm so lucky I have Sandy there.

Came home and I was able to enjoy the shrimp scampi and angel hair pasta meal Jean made. About an hour later my taste buds went south. Lucky!

Now I'm operating off the steroids apparently. Hopefully the effect will wear off soon so I can sleep tonight.

In the meantime, nighty night!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I'm slipping....

about posting here. I have to get better. Even if what I have to write is mundane, trivial, garbage...

Well...mundane, trivial garbage has been happening. Done.

Actually, I've been having a different kind of week. Actually got out two days so far. Yesterday I had to take the car to Toyota and have it serviced. I hadn't gotten a recall notice, so I wasn't sure if my Camry was one of the ones effected by the gas pedal problem. They did the service and reassured me that my car was NOT one of the ones with the problem! YAY!

In the afternoon Sandy and I went down to Waterford to watch Ryan play on the freshman basketball team. He is really good, they are really good and they won. I was happy to be able to see him--haven't seen him play yet this year. Then Ryan had been asked to play on the JV team that night. So, after the freshman game, we schlepped over to the other gym (remember, this is rich Waterford) and watched the JV get whupped by New London. Ryan didn't get to play much and when he did, he had turnovers...poor kid. He was playing sick, probably shouldn't have gone to school, but you know kids. I can remember playing basketball in high school with a high fever, etc. Ryan won't let these mistakes stop him. He's a very determined, hard-working, NICE kid. I think we are going to be going to a lot of basketball games in the years to come.

After the game we went over to Frank and Jean's and had dinner. They stopped at Wendy's on the way home and treated us. I had a taco salad. Good. Then I crashed on the couch. Sandy took me home. It was the longest I've gone since my surgery.

Today we left early to have my bloodwork done at Backus; then down to L&M to see Dr. McCourt. We had to wait for awhile down there, so we got to chat with my favorite NL nurse, Heidi. She is so funny and we always enjoy yacking with her.

Then I saw Dr. McCourt. She is very happy with how I'm healing and appalled about my bowel
situation. But there isn't anything more she can do about it. Just make the appropriate sympathetic faces when she talked to me about it.

I was hoping to get my last CA 125 results...they hadn't been entered in the computer for some reason. Dang.

Afterwards we stopped at Chester's Barbecue. You know me and chemo...I get the barbecue cravings and we went right by the place....so.....of course I went in. I got pulled pork sandwiches for me, Jean and Frank and something called "pulled chicken" for Sandy. I had been kidding her and said, "maybe they have pulled chicken for you!" Sure enough.

WELL! The pulled pork sandwich was EXCELLENT! They put about a half a pound of meat in each sandwich. I couldn't finish it of course. I also bought sides of cole slaw and baked beans, because it's not barbecue without slaw and beans.

WELL WELL WELL....of course I spent the next hour and a half in the bathroom.

Good barbecue.

Came home and crashed for about two and a half hours, with my little doggies snuggled up next to me.

Tomorrow night we go out to 99 Restaurant with Lynne and David. A new, night-before-chemo tradition. Dinner with Lynne and David. Right now the thought of food makes me ill...I'm sure I'll be hungry by tomorrow night!

Nighty night!