Monday, March 3rd
After almost two weeks at home in the wake of good news from the
first round of treatment, I had one of the hardest days I've faced so far when
I had to return the to hospital. The mental challenge of thinking about
the hospital routine was very difficult and a little depressing which is an
emotion that I've avoided for the most part. I was well enough to drive
myself up to my sister's house who then brought me over to the hospital at
10:30am. The day didn't seem to get any better as I went to my assigned
room and found the small broom closet configuration. The nurse came in
and went through the admission process again, which seemed redundant since they
have 90% of the information already in the computer. She eventually drew
blood, which at least felt like health care progress. That was around
1:00pm. Next was the new PICC line, which was inserted into my left arm
around 4:00pm. I was starting to get a little aggravated with the time
line as the chemo was scheduled for Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Monday was
slowing slipping away.
The Oncologist arrived around 5:00 to review the plan and finish
ordering the chemo. He informed me that we'd almost certainly go through
three rounds of Consolidation, which pushes out my completion date by another
month. He also told me that he spoke to a transplant guy who thought I
would be better served to have a bone marrow transplant, although my Dr. didn't
yet agree with the assessment. Some downer news that also has future work
travel plan implications. At least the final prerequisites were in place
to get started. Then the wait continued. My mom came by with
dinner, no chemo. The nursing shift change took place at 7:00pm, no
chemo. My evening medications and vitals were taken at 9:00pm, no chemo.
The nursing staff was calling down to the pharmacy frequently, no chemo.
It finally arrived at 11:00pm. My depression had turned more to
anger at this point. I was feeling like the day was wasted and that my
Saturday discharge was now in jeopardy. My first round of chemo ran for
seven days, 24-hours a day, I assumed this round was the same. When the
nurse finished hanging the bag she said she would be back at 1:00am. I asked
why. She said that the chemo would be done by then. This was the
first piece of good news on the day, it would mean that while I would get my
last dose of chemo on Saturday morning, it would be over in two hours so it
also gave back some hope for Saturday discharge. The other part that was
positive was that no IV had been ordered at this point, so once the chemo was
finish, she would unhook me from the stand and I could sleep through the night
with no attached tubes.
Besides the events of the day,
I also took notice of the little things in the hospital that I hadn't missed
over the last two weeks. The constant interruptions by doctors and
nurses, the sound of the pumps (motor and alarms), the sound and sight of the
Medivac helicopter taking off from the pad behind the hospital, and the dread
of poor sleep through the night. It was the end of a long, challenging
day with some set backs and mental challenges. It was harder than I had
imagined, but at least there was some progress and glimmer of home to stay on
schedule at the end of the day.
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