A Bumpy Road.

Hiya,
Well I did get admitted for my mobilization chemotherapy, the hospital is new and very very nice, the nurse gave me a guided tour of the room, I was shocked it sounded more like a hotel than a hospital room with a flat screen plasma tv with a keyboard and Internet access. When you are hungry you just call and receive room service. Craig wanted to stay the night to try out the facilities. The hospital is that popular there is a waiting list for the obs/gyn floor so people can deliver there baby's there. We were also impressed that our Dr's when they entered my room washed there hands and Disinfected there stethoscopes every time without prompting from infection control!!! The Chemo went well as it was a bigger dose than I have had before and had to have bladder irrigation!! which was a new experience but at least I didn`t have to struggle drinking as much water as previously. I had very minimal nausea and I was discharged back to the hotel the next day. The weekend went better than I was expecting.

On Monday the nurse came to flush my Picc and deliver supplies for its care. She skipped the training when she realised we were both Rn's. As the day progressed my arm started to feel tight, painful and my fingers to my left hand became discoloured. I wanted to leave it to the next morning and see what happened, I asked Craig what he thought Straight away he said lets call the Dr and pull it out . On speaking with the Dr he advised that we go to the ER to have the picc pulled and get a scan. So off we trotted to the ER immediately got triaged as high priority and was taken back into the ER. The Dr's decided to pull the picc and admit me and to have a scan in the morning.

Two hours after arriving in the ER I was in a hospital bed very efficient service. I was admitted to the old part of the hospital not where I was previously. Where's the plasma TV with Internet and room service , there goes our ideas of grandeur , the bed in the room had a air mattress with a noisy leaking pipe on it that was very noisy. Craig said your not going to get a great nights sleep on that thing, hence he wasn't so keen to stay the night here!! So the next day bright and early I was whisked down to the Vascular Lab where they diagnosed a DVT from my axilla into the subclavian. Oh great I thought now I'm going to be on blood thinners with a low platelet count from the chemo but not so, Dr Burt assured me, that this clot will just disperse without such need. So a small bump in the road, it's very humbling being the patient and not the nurse but I must say the care I have received thus far has been excellent.

So now I am back at the hotel with my own private nurse Craig who works for food, is now having to give me s/c neupogen shots. These are a breeze after all the IV pokes I've been used to. I have to do these for 7 days as they will increase the amount of stem cells I produce. With the shots I also receive oral antibiotics until Monday. This is when I go in for the Harvesting of the stem cells, which unfortunately means another line being put in but thankfully not another PICC . Not looking forward to that day!

It's getting a little nippy here so we are looking forward to returning to AZ for 2 weeks to get warm probably around the 4th November, can't wait to see the boys and sleep in our own bed. I have not lost my hair yet but will do over the next week, at least we will save on the hair care products.
Thanks for reading the blog, wishing everyone well,
Love Sharon and Craig.