Thursday 3.20.2008 Treatment #4, The Final Infusion

Day 2, Treatment #4

I found myself awake during the night, a lot. An hour of sleep, awake hot, blankets off, cooled off after about 20 minutes or so, then chilled, covered back up, and dozed off again, only to repeat the cycle in another hour or two. The window is open about 8-10 inches, there's a little breeze coming in. I find myself sitting on the edge of the bed, and I lay down with my head at the foot of the bed, because the window is down there, in the center of the wall. Whew...my head is soo hot. I finally cool off again and doze off. I awaken again, and have to urinate. I've been going each time I've been awake, but this time, I'm really full. I can tell the fluid shift has happened--the knuckles on my hands/fingers are going down, my knees are not so full. Good. Another couple of hours and it will be time to get up.

The fluid shift is good, and I feel like the fluids are getting back to "normal". I get in the shower, keeping my IV arm dry, but I had to wash my smelly parts from perspiring so much during the night. Ok. Ready for the day.

Breakfast, and ready to go. We head out for our 10:00 appointment. About halfway there, on the highway, traffic is stopped. We jumped off at the exit which happened to be right there, and skirted it. We got to the Office just at 10:00. Don't sign in, we'll pull your chart. Ok, thanks.

We sat, and waited. 10:25, Badgeless Lady called us back, and we chose Treatment Room 3 again, the corner room with 2 windows that we were in yesterday. We got our coats off, I was getting my heating pad out of my bag, and Phyllis came in. I sat down in The Chair, and Phyllis screwed a 10 ml syringe filled with normal saline and attempted to flush my needle. IT WORKS! Yay!! She hooked up the 1000 ml bag of 0.9% normal saline and started it infusing.

1030 Phyllis went across the hall to the workroom and came back with the 50 ml piggyback of decadron 10 mg, and a syringe of Aloxi 0.25 mg. She inserted the needle into a port and and slowly pushed it in. She then attached the decadron and turned that one on to start infusing. The bulk was still infusing, too. We talked about housekeeping issues--I remembered that I needed a detailed billing statement for the cancer insurance people, also a statement that I'll be unable to work my next two work days, and an order for the lab draw for next week Friday. She left the room to take care of my needs, and others, too.

1105 Decadron done. The bulk is infusing. I, believe it or not, am thirsty, and have drank 16 oz water. Phyllis comes by the door, sees that the decadron is done, and steps in to close the rollerclamp on that and speed up the bulk some.

1150 Bathroom time. I refill my water.

Throughout the next hour or so, Daniel and I are watching the drip rate on the bulk. It's not going real fast, so I keep nudging it up. The nurses go by the door, look in to see that all is well, and keep going. Ok.

1320 Done. Ringy Dingy. I've been working on that second water, and gotten about half of it in.

1340 Phyllis has been working with the patient in the next room, and walks by the door. She sees that the bag is done and comes in. She closes the roller clamp, and takes the tapes off, along with a lot of my skin. She laughs and says it's the last time she'll be removing any skin from me. Hm. Interesting attitude of patient skin....

She puts the Neulasta 6 mg injection in the under part of my right forearm and covers it with a bandaid.

Wa Laa!!! I'm done!!! I thank her for taking good care of me, for making the experience a positive one. She walks us up to the exit door and wishes us well.

Whew, we're done. We walk down the sidewalk and over to the car hand in hand (we usually do) and smiled at each other. Phase 2, done. Well, after 3 weeks of side effects.

We get home, and fix lunch. We eat, Daniel checks the computer, then he decides that he needs to run a couple of errands, and leaves. I check my own computer stuff, and get dinner put together and in the oven. Daniel comes back as I'm finishing up. He was unable to find a cable he needs, so he gets online and orders it. Hm.

It's close to 5 pmm and still sunny. I ask him to go out for a short walk with me. We do--I'm not walking real fast, but we were out for about 25 minutes. Nice.

When we got back to the house, Dan said the wind was cold. I was hot flashing--I opened my coat and cooled off. Sheesh.

Dinner, I cleaned the kitchen, Daniel had the television on, I wrote here. He's off to bed, I'll be there soon.

Thanks for reading, for supporting us on this part of the cancer treatment. Side effects are coming, I know. The next step is a lab draw next Friday to make sure my blood's ok, then the visit with Dr. DeBiose, Radiology, April 10. I'll write tomorrow. Hugs.