Rightyho.
I’m in the hospital.
[Thanks for the ride Jodell!]
Had a procedure this morning and they gave me a “tunnelled central venous catheter” and then I got to my room where I will be for the next month or so.
This catheter is similar to my regular power port except it has two ports on it and they are of a larger dimension.
The room is fine.
Lots of people had told me how great the rooms are on this floor and, well, I think they oversold it a bit.
Maybe I just haven’t seen many hospital rooms.
I’m mostly unpacked and starting to feel sort of comfortable.
Had a very busy few days leading up to today.
Did many practical things.
Easy things like a car wash to get the salt rinsed off the vehicle so he won’t be sitting and stewing in a thick layer of salt.
Slightly more involved things, I finally have a signed Power of Attorney and Health Care Directive!
[Big thanks for Miriam for her help there.]
And hard but not as hard as I thought it would be, I dropped Lenny off to Deb and LeeAnn’s house so he will be loved and cared for and hopefully share a bit of cat joy back.
[Huge thanks to Deb and LeeAnn.]
So.
I got my life mostly in order and am now in my hospital room.
They are doing vitals every four hours or so and every few hours I get handed a wee cup with pill(s) to take.
Got an IV antibiotic this evening to prepare for chemo.
In an hour or so they will be starting next IV which is another preventative drug to help my body handle the chemo.
THEN at 3am they will be starting the actual chemo IV.
I found out why they start it in the middle of the night!
To help them with the dosing they will be doing blood tests at very specific times (within 5 minute window) to track how my body is metabolizing the chemo drugs.
Because of the schedule of those tests they start the drugs in the middle of the night so the daytime lab technicians and pharmacists are around to do the testing and planning as soon as the blood is drawn.
MIxed feelings about the food so far.
Dairy and I have a complicated relationship and I told them that when I consume dairy products I take Lactaid.
That got into my chart as NO DAIRY ALLOWED.
So when I called to order lunch I was told I could not have an egg and cheese muffin sandwich due to my allergy.
When I called to get some supper I was told I could not have a chocolate chip cookie becuase the cookies use milk chocolate chips.
This is a problem.
Nurses have told me they have orders to provide me with Lactaid whenever I need it but first a higher authority has to get my chart changed so the kitchen will allow me to have foods with dairy.
We are coming to the end of Day -7 and things are well.
Today was supposed to be Day -6 but there has been a hiccup in the plans for when we will receive my Donor’s stem cells.
I did find out today that my 22 year old donor is female lives in Germany.
Unclear if the delay has to do with the timing of her donation process or the travel to get the stem cells from Germany to Minneapolis.
This means that my Day Zero won’t be on Thursday but it will be on Friday.
That means Day 100 will not be on Star Wars Day but it will be on Cinco de Mayo.
This is not serious, a small bummer but not serious.
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