Heatherina

Chemo… a chronicle, part II

Friday:

7:00 AM: @M:!)W*RIU*#JFE….WHY?!?!  I am clearly not a morning person.

7:30 AM: Same as yesterday as far as getting ready… Jesse picks out my outfit and makes me toast as I struggle to stay focused and awake and take all my pills.

7:45 AM: I call to schedule a car to pick me up. I don’t like to take any chances with public transportation while I’m undergoing chemo.

8:15 AM: The car service comes to pick us up. I’m absolutely exhausted and keep slipping in and out of sleep. The driver is very talkative today. His wife is going to have twins any day now. By the time we’re getting close to the hospital, all I can think about is how I can’t wait to go back to sleep.

9:15 AM: Jess and I walk into the KCC, the part of the Mt. Sinai with the blood bank, and everyone knows me by name. It’s almost like a reunion. “Hey, where have you been? We haven’t seen you in awhile!” I’m the first one in, so I get my choice of bed or chair. I’m absolutely exhausted so I take a bed in the corner. I take off my shoes and climb under the blankets and get comfortable so we can get started. Blood takes a lot longer to transfuse than platelets, and I need two bags, so we have to get started right away if I’m going to get home before my chemo finishes.

9:15 AM: The first step is drawing blood so the bank can do type-matching, which takes awhile. Since I still have the chemo running through the catheter in my chest, they are going to have to start a new IV line in my arm for the blood. I’m really good with needle-sticks now, but this one really hurts. I have terrible veins, so the nurse literally has to milk my vein to get enough blood. My wrist swells up immediately afterward and I know I’m going to have a nice bruise tomorrow. Because of the trauma to the vein from having to milk the blood out, they are going to have to re-stick me to start the IV. But I’m so exhausted that I barely notice what’s going on.

10:30 AM: They finally matched my blood. They wake me up so they can find another vein and get me hooked up to an IV so my first bag can be started. Almost as soon as the blood starts flowing through me, I’m asleep.

12:30 PM: The first bag ends and they wake me up to take my vitals before starting the second. When the second one is started, Jesse leaves to run errands and I fall sleep again.

1:30 PM: I wake up and am starting to feel alert. I start reading my book and have some cookies from the bag of snacks they keep in the blood bank.

2:00 PM: Jesse arrives back just as the second bag of blood ends and they are flushing my IV with saline.

2:15 PM: We call a car service, and in no time we are on our way home.

3:30 PM: Trekking back up to the apartment… First Jesse goes up with the stuff, and then he comes back for me.

I immediately hit the futon, and although I feel much stronger after the transfusion, I am still incredibly weak. My arms and legs feel like lead. So it’s looking like a movie day for me.

Well, that’s pretty much what it’s like… 2 days of lots of nurses, medicines, and fatigue. Welcome to chemo!