Lymphoma, the process - part 13

Monday, January 2, 2012

Tomorrow is another chemotherapy day. Since I'll be out for the week, I need to get some things done for work. My home connection to the network at work isn't working so I drove to my office and sat at my desk... wearing a surgical mask. Yesterday, New Year's Day, was Sunday so today is our day off which makes it rather quiet here. I kept waiting for someone from security to wander through. I imagined that such a meeting (security guard and me) was going to be humorous. I pictured myself as a funny looking being seeing as I still had my hat on, my coat on(heat was turned way back), a surgical mask, and glasses that were fogged as often as not. But then, armed guards may not have that much of a sense of humor.

There must be some trick to keeping your glasses from fogging up while wearing a surgical mask. I did figure out that it helped to move my glasses down my nose, but then that changed the angle of focus and I'd have to move my head around to see the computer monitor in the right position. I do have a construction type respirator which does not fog up my glasses but that makes me look like some type of hostile alien... not an image I want to present in public, especially with armed guards around.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Chemotherapy day. Since this is to be my last chemotherapy, I'll fill in some details, many that have been already mentioned in previous writings.

I started arrived at 8:15 for an 8:30 appointment. The rooms for day-long chemotherapy are old (1970's) hospital rooms that have two chairs rather than two beds. The chairs are large recliners which are comfortable up to a point. I wore a comfortable button down shirt (easy access to my port) and over-sized blue jeans (which are not so over-sized anymore).

The nurses quickly took a sample of blood to send to the lab and got me started on the normal intravenous hydration. New for today was when they had to take a second blood sample, this time from my arm, because they did not trust the potassium and sodium readings from the first sample which was taken from my port.

Lunch was the same as I have gotten each time, open faced roast beef sandwich with potatoes and green beans. It's amazing how they made the roast beef sandwich taste different every time.

Here's something I'm not sure I've mentioned before, the IV pumps that regulate the flow of fluid though the IV tubes have built in batteries. That allowed me to unplug the unit from the wall and walk to the restroom without interrupting the flow of liquid into my port. For the hours that I was also hooked up to a blood pressure cuff (recording my blood pressure every five minutes) I managed to refrain from leaving the chair for that would have required the help of a very busy nurse.

Shortly after I got my Tylenol and Benadryl, I slept for a few hours. Even when I awoke, I was not really awake. Marlyn found it amusing to see what intravenous Benadryl does to my eyes.

Even with the delay in the blood work, I still got out of there around 5:00 p.m. As always, Marlyn drove me home. And as always, I headed for bed when I got home, had some soup for dinner, watched mindless TV until 1:00 a.m. (hoping to fall asleep) and then watched the clock in the dark until 3:00 a.m.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Drinking plenty of liquids today. I try to get at least a half gallon in me. Today may end off being a whole gallon. As for meals, if I don't do smaller than normal portions, I get that acid reflux feeling.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Where did Thursday go? I know the mind is impaired and I am easily confused... for example, I don't get why is Casey Anthony still in the news and I don't understand why politicians spend months of their lives and millions of dollars running for President only to drop out after the first vote. I'm sure these would be clearer to me if I could think better... right? Anyway, Thursday seems to have just come and gone without me noticing.

The usual symptoms have surfaced: dizziness, tiredness, easily winded from basic activity, and constipation. Okay, maybe you didn't want to hear about that last one but it has been a problem in the past and Milk of Magnesia has been useful. Oh, then there's that smell. Marlyn has assured me that the house does not smell funny but I smell something.

Monday, January 9, 2012

My enthusiasm for getting back into the swing of things did not overcome my physical ability to do so. I'm still needing naps.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Imagine what it might feel like getting trampled by a heard of stampeding cattle. That's about how I felt on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Thursday and Friday were much better but it really caught me by surprise that I was not doing as well as I expected. The whole sensation of the legs going weak, then that feeling moving slowly toward my head was not unfamiliar however, the intensity of it concerned me enough to decide to call the oncologist on Thursday if it continued. Luckily, it did not.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I spent most of today on the couch. I was just too tired to do much of anything else. Marlyn and I traveled 90 minutes to visit a niece and her family. It was the niece's couch I was on. Maybe the driving did me in. It was discouraging. My enthusiasm for bouncing back is apparently outpacing my ability to do so. (Did I already say that?) Naps help, sometimes two are needed.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I drove to the office for a couple meetings today. A walk up a hill resulted in a 3 hour afternoon nap. Much more of this and I'll be changing my name to Van Winkle.

Link to Epilogue: http://vgrick.hubpages.com/hub/Lymphoma-The-process-epilogue