2ND CHEMO DRIP

I was so tired last night. I was able to go to sleep right after we read our scriptures and said our prayers. I went to sleep at 10 and got up at 6!!  It was great!!  I got an 80 sleep score and I was needing it. Once I was up, I dressed because last night I brought my clothes down here to the living room. I waited till 7:30 to wake Tony up but I curled my hair at that time in the extra bathroom upstairs. 

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I went in the craft room and made a card till I heard him rustling around and then I went in and put my face on.

I WAS READY TO HEAD OUT FOR THE CHEMO DRIP. 

We had a few minutes so I tried calling Treasure Valley Rheumatology Clinic to schedule an appointment with Dr. Dingman. They had called me a couple of days ago and left a message and I didn't see it till last night. I had to leave a message. On the way to the hospital, Tony told me to call again (the squeaky wheel gets the grease concept) so I did and had to leave another message. 

Once I got to the Infusion Center, I got checked in and the nurse tried to find a vein for the port. She struggled so went to the other arm and tried it and then came back to my right arm, got out a machine called the AccuVein. It has a light on it that shows the veins under the skin.  

She found a nice long one and got it on the 1st stab, which didn't hurt at all. Love those tiny needles! Once she got the needle in and secured, she got out 4 pills I had to take. One was Benadryl, one was for acid in the stomach and the other two...I don't know. She asked me if I was on any type of medication for infection? DUH!!  I told her Bactrim for a colonized urine infection as well as the steroid, Prednisone. She said she needed to call Dr. Keller about the Bactrim. (Not sure why, cuz I was on it on the last drip too but oh well....let her do her job.) She came back and said he had it in his notes and it was OK. Then she said I had to wait 1/2 hour for the pills to kick in and for the medication to come up from the pharmacy. 

NO PROBLEM, I have my book! 

Finally, it got started. This time they allowed more to drip faster each 30 minutes. I thought I'd be outta there a lot sooner but it still took 5 and 1/2 hours. So only 1/2 hour quicker. 

They are always so nice though. For some reason, this time I was very drowsy! I would read for a while and then have to close my eyes for a bit. Then at 11:30 the nurse asked me if I wanted to eat some lunch. They give a complimentary meal with the procedure. I looked at the menu and chose an egg salad sandwich..... How can you go wrong with a sandwich?

Well, it's possible in the hospital!  lol  No mayo, No salt and No pepper. Just hard boiled eggs ground up between 2 slices of bread, VERY BORING and quite honestly tasteless!! I asked if they had some salt and pepper packets and they did so that helped a wee bit but not much. The cranberry juice I asked for was quite delicious! lol I didn't eat it all but did my best. I was finally given the saline flush around 1:30 and so I called Tony to come get me. Now, I will see what the kidney doctor says about my kidney on Thursday afternoon. I hope the Rheumatologist calls soon to get me on some kind of regimen for the auto immune disease. I'm getting fatter by the day. The prednisone gives me "MOON FACE" and actually, the pounds are coming back on rapidly. It is a steroid and makes me hungry. I think about food all the time. It's bad!!  I won't be off the stuff till May and I hope they will take me off it then. I'm in a NO WIN situation right now. I mean don't get me wrong, it's doing a great job getting rid of the blisters and the eosinophils in my blood so I guess I have to take the good with with the bad. Finished my day with a R.S.  meeting here at my house. Tony's was at at 4  and mine was at  6:30. We had a good meeting. I expressed my concern about not being able to participate like I should but Jenni said she feels good about what I have been doing from home. I told her I would be going to the kidney doctor and a rheumatologist and would keep her posted. Will see what happens.