www.cancermonster.net

It’s me.

I’m doing pretty good this second day of Chemo Part III.  The only real problem is that they are having a hard time finding a viable vein in my arms or hands on either side.  I have the double port in my chest for the Chemo, but the Thiamine needs it’s own entrance to my system and that is getting trickier and trickier.   My veins have always been small and deep and they have a tendency to move when you poke at them.  Now that the Chemo is running through them, it seems they are getting mad and behaving worse than usual.  I have been poked and prodded more times than one could imagine.  My late night nurse was the expert on the floor.  She poked me.  The veins ran from her.  At 3:00am, she called in a nurse from ICU who is the IV go-to on her floor.  She poked me.  The veins ran from her too.  At 4:30am the nursing supervisor for the entire hospital showed up.  The IV that we had been using totally stopped working by then.  It was delivering my Thiamine.  No Thiamine.  Rut Roe Raggy.   But the TopDog was able to find a small vein in my right hand that worked.  She got it in one!  It hurt like a dickens, but I was happy to have it– even though I was trying to not need my right hand to be carrying the IV.  I do every thing with my right hand… They are telling me that I will need some special line -either a midline or a PIC line, next trip in here. . .  Whatever!  If it means less poking I’ll take it.

Hold that thought.  My nurse just informed me that the pharmacist came up with a way to combine the two bags of chemo in one side of my double port and run the Thiamine and fluids in the other side.  Then I don’t need this one on my hand.  Whoo Hoo!!

“What if we take this out of my hand and the combining of the two chemoes  doesn’t work for me?  Then we have to dig this vein back out again . . .”
He said he was thinking the same thing.
“What if we just cap this one off there and leave the stub in for a while. . . Just to make sure the new way works. . . As much as I would love to have the whole thing gone, I would really hate to have to put the IV back in.”
“Good Idea.”

Backing up a few hours . . . My Dr W was the guy on rounds this morning.  When he came in he was checking out my artwork.

“What is this?”  asked Dr W.
“Therapy”  Answered Dan.
“Silk Painting Dyes” I added.
“And this?  Is it glue of some kind?  You have poison here?”
“It’s called ‘resist.“ It keeps the dye from flowing past and the only poison in this room is what your pumping through my veins.”
“It’s called Therapy.”
“It’s still poison.”

That got me a Dr.W smile.  I like those.   Then he turned to my Chemo IV Cart.

“What’s all this?”  he asked while looking over all the stuff I had hanging on my cart that wasn’t poison.
“Hey, If I have to walk around pulling along all this nasty chemo hanging there, I want to see something pretty and fun before I see that yuck.  It’s my way of thumbing my nose at the CancerMonster!”

I got another smile for that.

Nah Nah, Na, Nah Nah!
Notice the hat? It says “No Hair Day!”   It was a gift from Anita!  I love it.

My lunch is here.  Only cold stuff so as not to bring that cooked in smell in the room.  It helps my nausea level to keep the smells around here to a minimum.  A sandwich and a salad. Whatever.

I will try to write you again before I am done with this cycle.  So far so good.  It’s nice to spend some time alone with Dan.  He will be going home in the morning and Anita will take his place baby sitting me for the second half of my stay.  My mom and Pam played tag with the kids.  Mom was there bright and early at 7:30am yesterday morning to take care of the three hooligans and Aunt Pam came in the evening to take over and take them to the movies!   Then she spent the night and will again tonight so the kids can stay in there own house.  School starts back tomorrow, too.  Aunt Pammy will drop them off in the morning.  All covered.  What a family I have. Their love and support is part of the story.  Part of the testimony.  Part of the medication that I need to get better.

I am Blessed to overflowing.