Yesterday was my next to last treatment! Yea!!! It certainly wasn't without problems, either.
Jessica was my nurse yesterday. Everytime I go for chemo, the nurses take blood from the mediport to test my WBC. Usually there's no problem. Blood flows like a river. Not yesterday. No blood. At ALL. Once the mediport is accessed by the needle, the nurses look for a blood return. This means that blood flows out of the port into the tube attached to the needle. This ensures that there are no clogs in the port. Once the blood comes out, the mediport is flushed and treatment begins. The nurses couldn't even get that yesterday. This happened on my very first treatment, but the nurses said that it usually does the first time. Jessica tried several things: I took deep breaths, coughed, leaned forward, layed back. Nothing worked. We finally got the blood return, but blood only trickled out after that. I was given a dose of Heparin and we let it sit for awhile. Finally Nurse Kelly came over and took the blood one syringe at a time. We got just enough to test it. This took about 30 minutes. I took my Tylenol and Benadryl while we waited for the labs. My blood came back good (3.3 actually) and the saline and Aloxi were started. My vitals were okay...had a little bit of a fever: temp: 99.2, BP: 126/81, pulse: 90.
After the Aloxi came the Ativan and the Bleomycin, the 20 minute drip. The push-in drugs (Adriamycin and Vinblastin) came next along with more blood problems. The nurses look for a blood return before the push-in drugs, as well. Guess what? No blood return then, either. I did all the tricks again and Nurse Kelly came over to help. We finally got a return and the push-in drugs were started. I was feeling very stingy with blood yesterday apparently. I was even trying to will the blood out! Ever tried that? It's harder than it sounds. Anyhow, after the push-ins came the Decarbazine and sleep. Pretty uneventful after that point. At the end, 2 saline push-ins flush the port followed by another dose of Heparin.
On another note, I wanted to thank my mom for the nice thing she did on Thursday. She decorated our school's lounge in purple (the color for lymphoma) with a purple cake to celebrate my good news. What a surprise!
Jessica was my nurse yesterday. Everytime I go for chemo, the nurses take blood from the mediport to test my WBC. Usually there's no problem. Blood flows like a river. Not yesterday. No blood. At ALL. Once the mediport is accessed by the needle, the nurses look for a blood return. This means that blood flows out of the port into the tube attached to the needle. This ensures that there are no clogs in the port. Once the blood comes out, the mediport is flushed and treatment begins. The nurses couldn't even get that yesterday. This happened on my very first treatment, but the nurses said that it usually does the first time. Jessica tried several things: I took deep breaths, coughed, leaned forward, layed back. Nothing worked. We finally got the blood return, but blood only trickled out after that. I was given a dose of Heparin and we let it sit for awhile. Finally Nurse Kelly came over and took the blood one syringe at a time. We got just enough to test it. This took about 30 minutes. I took my Tylenol and Benadryl while we waited for the labs. My blood came back good (3.3 actually) and the saline and Aloxi were started. My vitals were okay...had a little bit of a fever: temp: 99.2, BP: 126/81, pulse: 90.
After the Aloxi came the Ativan and the Bleomycin, the 20 minute drip. The push-in drugs (Adriamycin and Vinblastin) came next along with more blood problems. The nurses look for a blood return before the push-in drugs, as well. Guess what? No blood return then, either. I did all the tricks again and Nurse Kelly came over to help. We finally got a return and the push-in drugs were started. I was feeling very stingy with blood yesterday apparently. I was even trying to will the blood out! Ever tried that? It's harder than it sounds. Anyhow, after the push-ins came the Decarbazine and sleep. Pretty uneventful after that point. At the end, 2 saline push-ins flush the port followed by another dose of Heparin.
On another note, I wanted to thank my mom for the nice thing she did on Thursday. She decorated our school's lounge in purple (the color for lymphoma) with a purple cake to celebrate my good news. What a surprise!
I also want to thank my class (especially Erin) for the beautiful artwork that awaits me in the classroom on Monday morning after my chemo treatments:
Reminder: Don't forget about the walk! Go here: http://teams.lightthenight.org/PurplePeopleEaters_SouthernMethodistUniversity
3 comments:
You have the BEST MOM on earth Kim!! We miss you both here at our school. (((HUGS)) >:<
Linda is RIGHT! You DO have the BEST mommy!!! AND your sweet mommy has raised two awesome children!!!
I can't wait for you to cross the finish line....its oh so close!!!!
xoxo...Jessica
"Stingy" with the blood you say? You never did quite learn to share when we were kids. And so it continues.
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