Patience (or lack thereof)

The week is finally drawing to a close.  With a slow start and fast middle, Thursday & Friday were quiet days with most of the focus on work.  As I rolled into Friday night, the big focus was getting the chemo treatment out of pharmacy to keep on schedule for release on Saturday.  With blood levels looking good, it was just a matter of getting through the final two servings of chemo on Friday night and Saturday morning and I would be ready to go home.  I prepped the nurses and the doctors to put pressure on pharmacy to keep on schedule.  Since receiving the first chemo so late on Monday night, it's been an uphill battle getting back on schedule.

As 8:30pm rolled around on Friday night, the nurse was already applying pressure on the pharmacy.  When 9:00 rolled around, she actually went there herself and retrieved the meds.  I felt that if we started around 9pm, then we'd be in good shape for 9am in the morning, and release by noon.  I went to sleep feeling like we had half a chance.

I managed to sleep until 7:00 (reminder that when I say sleep, that's naps broken up by bathroom breaks from IV and nurses visits or 8-10 times of waking up in the night), I ordered breakfast and started packing.  The day nurse came on shift and was well aware of the pharmacy / discharge goals.  8:00 nothing, 8:30 nothing, 9:00, nothing, 9:30 nothing, 10:00 nothing.  While this seems like a short-term goal to get out of the hospital at a reasonable hour, my lack of patience, along with the new person living in the room next to me who is coughing out a lung every few minutes, is driving my anger level up with each passing minute.  I broke down and called the nurse who I already knew was doing everything she could to move things along.

I didn't show up by ambulance or medivac as an emergency.  I was scheduled for this visit since last week.  My meds were not rush ordered, they were scheduled for the week.  The order for last night and today's meds have been in the computer all week.  At 10:00, when I called the nurse, she actually said that she had the chemo in her hands.  BUT, they had not made the chemo pre-meds that drip for 20 minutes prior to the chemo going on.  Now I'm not a pharmacology graduate, but it would seem to me that mixing medication that requires pre-medication before mixing the pre-medication seems wrong.  Despite having a week of time to get this situation figured out, the last chemo was hung at 11:00am, on the exact late scheduled that was started on Monday night.

I suppose that in the list of disappointments this is a small one and it's just time to suck it up and move on.  Lunch is on the way, the sun is shining outside, I get to leave the hospital today, round 2 of 4 of chemo is now complete, and will see my family tonight when they arrive at my sister's house.  Hard to argue that it's not a great day.