07/20/2010:
1:30: I have a temp of 101.5. So I have had someone ask me about getting my temperature every hour on the blog. Well I was told that if my temperature goes above 102, to call the doctor’s office who put the port in. I am under his caer until tomorrow evening after a full week from when the port was put in. Therefore since I have been running a fever on and off, I need to constantly check it. Also remember, I am using this as a journal for myself, so if I want to recall what my last temperature was and at what time, I am going to come check the blog for that info. So why some of it may seem repetative to you, it is informative to me for journal and reference sake.
1:54: My wife calls me letting me know she is on her way home from her normal nightly outing.
2:00: I have a temp of 101.7. Remember I am not able to eat or drink anything after midnight. Usually the Percocet/Tylenol was keeping my temp down, but the last time I took any tylenol was 4:30 PM.
9:30: I woke up to a client phone call that wasn’t anything of an emergency, so I will take care of that this weekend.
9:35: I took my temp, even though I feel warm, I don’t have a fever, 98.6
9:40: I answer 2 texts from another client, I am waiting for a part to come in for one issue, and the other issue I can take care of this weekend.
10:30: I am here at my computer setting up my Outlook to handle all the email addresses I am handling at work, so when I am working from home, everything is setup the same as the office.
10:45: I call back the doctor’s office who tells me that I have a surgery set for Monday at 9:30 if the port doesn’t work today for the Bone Marrow Biopsy.
10:55: I get a call from the surgery center which I return, they go over all the basic instructions for Monday morning, no eating after midnight, wash the area thoroughly with antibacterial soap, the normal. I get a voicemail from a vendor for a client of mine, while I am on the phone with the surgery center.
11:03: I return the phone call from the vendor, and have to remote into my client’s server and check on another server that is having issues from the workstation point of view. There is no issue, but the cause was the repetitive loss of power over night and today which has completely drained the battery in the UPS.
11:15: I get ready to leave for EJGH. There is a thunderstorm rolling through. A flash flood warning is effective for our area. Let’s see if we can make it to the hospital without drowning or getting stuck :P.
11:35: My wife is driving me now to EJGH.
12:00: We checkin at outpatient.
12:15: I checkin at endoscopy. They give me some more paper work to fill out.
12:25: The nurse comes to check on me and my paperwork, as my room is ready.
12:30: I am in the room and in another lovely fashionable gown.
12:35: Anesthesia interviews me.
12:40: The IV team shows up to access my port.
12:45: The port is accessed. However they have problems drawing blood from it or pushing saline in to flush it. After some pulling and pushing, the nurse is able to get some blood flow, but not enough to easily fill the tubes. She takes another tube of saline and pushes really hard and fast and flushs out the line/catheter between the port and my vein. She then pulls blood again for the tubes and this time it is flowing nice and quick. She then flushs it again. The nurse then hooks up my IV line that is connected to my port to the bag of saline hanging behind my bed. My wife has to go to a meeting at work, so she heads out, my mom will be driving me home again today.
1:00: The pathologist, Dr. Sartin arrives and talks with me real quick about the procedure. He wants to go over everything real quick, and just checking, we are doing this on your left hip. I say “right”. He says Actually left, lol. Had to be there… They then have me lay on my right hand side since they will be doing the biopsy of my left hip. He says he is going to examine me before putting me to sleep. He promises he won’t start anything until I am well asleep. I feel him probing for my hip and and then I feel what feels like a needle which I flinch, and he then tells me its just a pen that he is marking on my back. Whew, I thought he was starting already, jump started me.
1:10: They start feeding me the propofol. I don’t know if it is because it is in my port they are giving it to me, but I am out quick, I don’t even remember feeling the tiredness.
1:40: Next thing I know I am waking up. A little pain in the left back hip, but that’s usual, and its not unbearable.
2:00: I am up out the bed getting dressed.
2:10: I am being wheeled out in a wheelchair.
2:15: We get to the parking garage, the outpatient area, third level, and my mom is there waiting. I get into the car, and we head on out.
2:25: We are at Jimmy John’s, ordering lunch/supper. I get a #11 – Country Club, and The J.J. Gargantuan.
2:45: We get home and it’s pouring down rain, we decide to wait in the car till it slacks up a little, but it doesn’t, so we finally just get out. My wife arrives home shortly after we do and also waits for the weather to slack up a little bit.
3:00: We are back in the house.The Country Club is great, and I eat half of The J.J. Gargantuan and save the other half for my dad.
3:15: I get a call from Dr. Veith’s office letting me know that my first Chemo appointment is Monday for 9:00 at the Yenni Treatment Center. OH WOW, now its starting to sync in, time for the CHEMO to START. TIME to start prepping my Chemo Bag. My rubic’s cube, my hard candy for the affect of certain drugs giving me the metallic taste in my mouth. Plenty of drink, some reading material, and always my laptop. I am planning on giving live updates of what each drug does to me and how I feel and whatever the nurse has to tell me about the drugs. Time to get the party started! OH BOY!
3:30: I took my Percocet for the pain in my butt, lol.
3:45: It is now it is time to sit down in the nice comfortable lazy-boy.
4:00: I help my wife with a few things on the computer.
4:37: My dad gets home from work. Long day in the rain, with flooded streets, and stuck out on his route because of the streets.
5:00: I am watching the news about the Batman Returns shooting in Aurora, Colorado, also working on a few things other things on the computer.
5:30: My sister, Sarah, is trying to use her phone and a curling iron at the same time. Let’s just say she is distracted and grabs the heated part of the curling iron giving her 1st or 2nd Degree burns to her fingers. My dad teases her saying that she is tired if me having all the attention lately with all my appointments, procedures, and tests. She is just desperate for some attention herself. LOL, we are just giving her a hard time.
7:00: I flip through the channels and find Batman Begins on FX. I have seen it before, but since I am not in the mood to do much else, I will watch it again.
10:15: Next on is Mission Impossible III.
11:30: I have a temp of 101.5. Also my hip/butt is starting to hurt bad again. So I take another Percocet. I can see in the bathroom mirror that the blood spot on the bandage has grown. I get back in the lazy boy with a pillow under my left hip to keep addition pressure on the incision site.
