So, now back to the story. After the PICC saga, the nurse who did all the good work and got me all cleaned up picked up all my gear and lead me to bay 6 for treatment. One has the option of either a bed or a chair - and of course I opted for the bed. Any chance to lay down and close my eyes is golden for me. Everything went great. That nurse (whose name I'll have to be sure to get next time) was soon replaced by Kathleen, who seemed to be the head nurse - or at least my head nurse:) Because I have the PICC line they could pump the stuff into me relatively quickly. First I got the red stuff, "A", which makes me pee bright red for a few days (fitting with the season), and then I got the brown stuff, "C", which didn't have any neat side effects.
Most of the time however the nurses were going over the pill regimen with me. This pill with food. These pills 12 hours apart. This pill this day, this pill that day. Injections on these days but not these. This pill if you feel nauseous - don't be a hero - stay in front of the nausea because it's easier to keep it at bay then to get rid of it once it starts - call this number if you need injections for nausea, on and on and on. Thankfully they also provided a chart with pill descriptions, alternate names, and full instructions - all on one handy sheet.
Home Care also came to give me more medical supplies and ensure I have the 24/7 numbers in case I need help at odd hours. I also got a free three month supply of Calcium and Vitamin D!
The pharmacy had questions about my prescriptions - one called for me to take two pills a day for four days - but then limited the script to 6 pills. Also, if a doc signed off on one of the scripts I would be able to get it free of charge from the pharmacy instead of paying over $100 a pop for it. And the lovely Kathleen took care of all of that for me too:)
Finally, Kathleen told me that I could have my blood work done through the PICC line if I came up to the Chemo Centre to have it done. I was surprised to hear this because I presumed that it would be done through the PICC line anywhere in the hospital. The bloodwork needs to be done before meeting with Dr Clemons so he can look at it and do his doctory stuff. I forgot my phone at home so didn't know the time of my next appointment with Clemons. No worries, Kathleen went into the computer, found the time of my appointment, made an appointment for me to have the blood work done there and paged Clemons to find out what type of blood work he wanted done. The federal government could learn alot from the way this Cancer Centre works. No arguing about who leads and whose job is what and who is the client and who is in charge. And talk about efficient! Certainly there is no ambiguity as to who gets the kudos either - the nurses get them all!
In any event, it was not as restful this go around as I had hoped, but it was great. I was warm in my turtle neck (I found one that rolled up easily to access the PICC), my turquoise shawl that all my colleagues will know b/c I kept it in the office with me at all times, my crazy cancer socks and the quilt mom, Elaine and Daphne made for me. I got lots of compliments on the quilt and the shawl. Sadly, no one else in my Bay had anything special with them - just the hospital sheets and blankets. Boring! I got an odd look from the gentleman in the chair beside my bed when I slipped off my shoes and stuck on my bright pink polka-dotted socks, but I gave him my best smile and he turned away to mind his own Ps and Qs.
I was my usual humourous self (tee hee) and at the end of the session I got hugs and kisses from everyone and holiday wishes. Seriously, it's a great place full of awesome people. I hope none of you ever have to be there, but if you do and if my first experience is the norm, it will be as comfortable and supportive as possible.
Oh ya, the Honeyman and Brothers Farr concert at the Blacksheep was alot of fun. I felt pretty good although I was drinking so much water per Kathleen's orders that I thought at one point that I might drown. I think soon there may be a post here of my mom's friend Lynne eating her hat (she didn't think I would make it out that evening:).
UPDATE: mom didn't work the video properly - so no eating of the hat - but here is the hat that mom and Heather made for the eating.....
Christmas was wonderful. I spent the morning at home with the kids and we had a great time. Then I went upstairs for a nap and the kids did a reasonably good job cleaning up. Laurie, her brother Glenn and his buddy James came over around 15:00 (and woke me up:) and we had another round of gift exchanges and then it was time for all six of us to head off to Mom and Dad's for supper with Heather and Nicki. It was great - mom broke out the margaritas (but not the profiteroles) and everyone had a great evening. There was a Blokus tournament to cap it all off. Logan was greatly handicapped with an Aunt who was more interested in sleeping instead of strategizing and a young cousin who was very interested in climbing Logan the Ladder during the play. He did very well on his own however and only seemed to decline when his aunt woke up! The big winners were Sydny and Granny in the first round and Glenn and Grandpa in the second.
Today the kids and I are planning to begin our Harry Potter movie watching marathon as Santa brought us the complete set on Blueray. Normally we would ski as much as possible this week, but mom is not up for that. They won't even notice that I'm napping through half the movies:)
Happy holidays!
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