Chemo Type 3 Cycle 3 – Infusion Day

04/26/2013:

8:00: I wake up, let Buster out.

8:10: I jump in the shower.

8:20: I jump out the shower.

8:25: Bending over to pick something up, I pop my nail off of its nail bed   again…  I popped it off the nail bed last week and put some Dermabond on it to hold it in place, and I hit it again this morning and popped it back off again..

8:45: I put in the Lidocane cream and cover it up with Saran Wrap.  So after 8  months of fighting with the Saran Wrap and trying to get it started every time I use it again, I discover the top of the Saran Wrap is made to split in half and you pull the Saran Wrap through the cover so that you don’t have to keep restarting the Saran Wrap every time you want to use it.  WOW!  Took me long enough to figure that one out..

8: 55: I head out and over to Tulane.

9:15: I get to Tulane.

9:20: I sign in at the front desk.

9:25: I head on back to the infusion center.

9:30: I am weighed, 258, temp, 98.6, and blood pressure, 145/35.  Oh well that’s what you get for blood pressure when you don’t sit and rest and just come from walking a good bit…

9:40: I am just sitting in my chair waiting for the nurses to start.  I pull out my laptop and start updating my blog…

10:10: The nurse comes around and accesses my port.  She wants to start the chemo, but I tell her that we have to do blood test first.  I was here on Tuesday to see Dr. Safah, but I wasn’t going to have them stick me then and then again today.  I told them one stick is good enough for me.  Stick me for the Chemo, and take the blood work before giving me the chemo.  The nurse checks the orders and sure enough, I am right.  She accesses my port.  I don’t feel a thing.  However it is not cooperating, she can push saline in, but she cannot pull blood out.  It ell her it is positional, she keeps trying to pull blood out.  I tell her to put the patch over the needle to hold the needle in the port and to maintain the sterilization.  I will play with the needle and move around, I have done it before, and I know how to get blood out of my port.  So I move around, and then I sit up and lean forward, and after some more playing, the blood return starts…  She takes the two tubes of blood and then flushes the port.  Now its time to wait again..

11284711:37: I am still waiting for the results of the blood test before they can start the chemo…  Here is a lovely picture of me while I wait…

11:45: They start up the chemo drip….

12:15: The chemo is done being administered.  They start the saline drip to flush the line.

12:30: The saline has timed out.  I am all flushed, just need to wait to be flushed, heprined, and deaccesed

12:35: I am deaccessed all done, ready to go!

12:40: I am done packing up my laptop and getting everything together.

12:45: I check out at the front desk and have my parking validated.

12:50: I get to the car.

12:55: I am out of the parking garage 😛

1:00: Driving to my office.

1:15: At my office.

1:20: I throw some Ramen Noodles, Chilli Flavored in the microwave.  I am going to test out all the Ramen Noodles so that I know which I want during my transplant.

1:25: Ahh the microwave just went off, time to go eat!

2:00: I start back up on some work.

7:00: I am done work for today, time to head home.

8:30: I get home, and grab a bite to eat.

9:00: I am laying in bed, on my laptop, doing some programming, and soon enough ZzZzZzZzZzZzZ…  The chemo has tired me out a little, but not as bad as the others.

11:00: I wake up and work on the laptop some more to finish up a few more lines of code to finish up the thought I had in my head before I fell asleep.

11:30: The laptop is up, and I am just relaxing and watching TV in bed.

11:59: Another day done, another chemo done, time for the weekend…

© Craig
CyberChimps