carolmcb's Cancer Blog
November 4, 2007
It’s Sunday morning and I’m doing better now. I was actually hungry and ate yogurt and Special K!
Friday’s chemo – what a hoot! First, for every other chemo day, I felt great. Not by noon on Friday for me this time. I was as sick as a dog. My husband thought it was because I was dreading the chemo so much. Not true. I was having some type of reaction to something real.
My treatment was scheduled for 3:00PM. That pretty late at this time of year since my husband can’t drive after dark. But since I couldn’t get an earlier appointment, I had it all figured out. We would go extra early and get my port and blood work done earlier and then go check in very early to chemo. Then my blood work would come in early and they could start the chemo early. Early – HA HA.
We got to the medical center about 1:00PM. I was feeling worse. The “port nurse” was at lunch. She got back about 30 minutes later. She took one look at me and said you aren’t feeling well and if your blood count is low they won’t take you for chemo. Well, so not only do I feel bad—I’m looking so bad that the nurse is speculating about my blood count. Great.
We go to check in at chemo and the receptionist from across the room says – are you OK, you don’t look good. Great, the receptionist can see how bad I look from across the room.
We go into the chemo waiting room. Packed with people waiting. One nurse comes in and says all the chemo rooms are full. Only thing making me better (this is not very nice)is that, for the first time, I not the only one in hat or cap or scarf. This is true. The other 4 times I’ve been in the waiting room either everyone had their own hair or the best wigs in the world. Well, this time hats, caps, scarfs and bad wigs were the norm. Made me in my hat feel at home.
It was one of those days where there were a number of people obviously ill in the waiting room. And, it was a day when they kept calling people back up to the clinic as their tests results came into the chemo area. I don’t like the look on those folks faces as they have to go up to have a special consultation with an oncologist.
Well, exactly at 3:00PM, my scheduled appointment time, I get called for chemo. Best laid plans of mice and men. On time and not early. This time I get a beautiful room with a “bed”. The nurse apologizes, that’s all they have. The bed is actually an old exam table that is almost long enough for my 5’4”. It has minimal padding and is so high off the ground that you have to use a stepping stool and a little hop to climb on board. This is too dangerous for the really ill chemo patients. It’s scary enough for me. And, it’s even more uncomfortable than the broken chemo chairs. Maybe, I’ll use my cell phone and call Lazy Boy to see if they are in the mood to make a donation to a very large and wealthy medical center that is torturing it’s chemo patients. I calm myself down and my husband goes off to find his double quarter pounder with cheese. His favorite thing is that there is a McDonalds attached to the medical center.
I wait and wait for the chemo hook up. I feel worse and worse. Finally, 25 minutes after getting to my chemo room, my favorite chemo nurse finds me and says—you look bad. She is concerned and starts questioning me. After answering some pointed questions, we decide to go on with chemo and see if the pre-treatment drugs don’t make me feel better. But she warns me, if I am feeling bad before chemo, I will have an even tougher weekend than usual. The pre-treatment drugs did help. They out me to sleep for about half the treatment time. That was a relief.
The nurse sped up the drip to compress the time required for the treatment. This got us out in time to get home before dark. We are driving home and my husband decides to try an alternate route to sped things up. Well, we all know what happens then. He takes a wrong exit. We get tied up in late rush hour traffic, etc, etc. We did finally get home but after dark.
My favorite nurse was right. Friday night and Saturday weren’t good at all. But, it’s Sunday morning. The sun is shinning and so far so good. We are going out to buy Gatorade. My husband is convinced that this will help me keep hydrated and feeling better. However, wait until he sees all the different types of Gatorade to choose from now. We will be at Kroger’s all day.
Thanks for your support - 
Ah Carol, I’m so glad you made it through okay. You’re a tough cookie, sweetie. You’ve got such a great sense of humor about the whole experience that I was smiling most of the time while I read your entry. Hope your husband resolve the Gatorade issue and decided quickly. LOL I wouldn’t want to spend all day at Kroger’s either. Hugs…Grace
Hi Carol,I put my name in as one of your supporters..I am new here,but I met you on another site with books..I am not an oncology nurse,but I am an R.N…I will always be available at any time,any hour,any day or night,for support,questions,or anything else I can help you with O.K.?! Nice to meet you and I`ll sign off with a big hug that sends my healing energy right to you!
Carol,
Glad you made it thru another one. One day at a time. Make sure you stay hydrated. Water is actually the best thing. I had to drink everything at room temperature, I found that a little lemon in it helped it go down easier. 1 chemo treatment I was so sick I didn’t eat or drink anything for 4 days, When I finally called the chemo nurse she yelled at me for waiting so long. I was so dehydrated they had to give me IV fluids for 3 days. I thought it was the chemo making me so weak but it was actually the dehydration.
Take Care
Donna