The First 24

The first 24 hours in the hospital has been interesting.  They are all very nice here.  I'm not used to being in the hospital, so it's weird, but fine.  The doctor offered me a sleeping pill last night, and I refused.  I've been sleeping fine lately.  Apparently that doesn't transfer to a hospital room.  LOL  She asked today if I regretted refusing it, and I admitted that I did.  I'll take one tonight.

The nighttime nurses are sweet and good at what they do.  I call them Nighttime Ninja Nurses.  The NNNs come in, work by only the light coming in from the hallway, and are back out within five minutes.  I barely knew what was going on before they were gone.

My bed has a problem that causes it to lock sometimes.  The buttons won't do ANYTHING.  The day nurse yesterday knew how to fix it, so she showed Kevin.  I didn't pay attention.  Guess how much good it did me?  This morning, a maintenance guy came in and asked about it.  He said that the beds are getting older and need new chips inside.  They've been ordered but aren't here yet.  Then, he took his fist and hit the control panel!  It fixed it right up.  I laughed and told him that I remember fixing our TV that way when I was a kid.  He said, "So do I.  That's what made me try it the first time."

I slept from 9:30ish until 11:30, 12ish until the NNNs came in at 2, and 2:30 until 3:45.  I called Kevin at 4 (he was already on his way to work, making up time that he missed yesterday, poor guy) and then I tried to go back to sleep.  I was finally successful around 5...and then my cell phone alarm went off at 5:30!  What an idiot!  I forgot that I have it set to go off each weekday at 5:30.  It has been turned off now, for sure!

I told a couple of friends, via Skype, that I wish I had some chips and chocolate.  This afternoon, the nurses aid came in carrying a bag with three small bags of chips and 4 kinds of chocolate in it!  It turns out that my friends do not know this delivery person, and neither do I.  It's a friend of a friend who happens to work here and hooked me up.  It's not who you know, it's who is known by whom you know.  Or something like that.

I've found that some of the food is quite good, and some is not great.  Most of it has been edible, though.  Except the tomato soup.  Ick.  Still, it's overall better than most people describe hospital food, so I'll not complain.  I can't imagine feeding this many people.  Plus, I'm a lot less picky than most.

At one point today, two doctors came in with two shadows.  Students, maybe?  Anyway, as the oncologist was telling me that my white cells had dropped again overnight (I know, I know.  *sigh*) and I'd be here at least through tomorrow, and possibly Friday, she said, "The good news is, you've been afebrile for 24 hours."  My hearing isn't great.  I hear things wrong a LOT.  What I *heard* is, "You've been senile for 24 hours."  Before I could process that enough to be offended, she added, "So as long as the fever doesn't come back..."  That's when I realized what she had said.  PHEW!

My final story is about how I'm introduced as shifts change.  Each nurse is telling the incoming nurse that I'm an ideal patient, or the best patient on the floor, etc, and that I never ring my call button.  That's true, I haven't needed to.  However, do you know what kind of pressure that puts on me?  Holy moly!  What if I need something?  I'll damage my reputation!  LOL   Yes.  I'll push the button if I need something, but I'm ambulatory, so there isn't much that I could need that I cannot get for myself.

Eight and a Half Hours

I didn't sleep well again last night, but I fell asleep (passed out hard, actually) quite easily the first time, and again after getting up 3 hours later for a restroom trip.  Drinking a lot of water must be done early in the day. Lesson learned.  I remedied that today.  :)

When I woke the second time, it was about 2:30, and upon returning to my chair (yes, I still cannot comfortably sleep in my own bed..BOO) I realized I wasn't going to get back to sleep.  Still, I forced myself to try for 45 minutes or so, and gave up and jumped online to waste some time until it was a normal time to wake up.

At 4, Kevin got up and showered, and then I showered and got ready for work.  It wasn't long before the steroids kicked in and and I realized, "You should be at work!  Use the hours you feel good wisely!"  I went in super early and accomplished a lot.  I wanted to make it until 2:45, but got caught up in a project, so I was there until 3:15.

The best part of the day was when they brought pizza in for a meeting in the conference room, and all of customer service could smell it.  They were all talking about how great it smelled.  I could smell it, but meh, whatever.  Food hasn't smelled good since Tuesday.  About 40 minutes later, I realized, "Hey!  That smells fantastic!"  I was able to scam a piece (since the folks in the conference room were done) and it tasted as good as it smelled.

I felt good through the whole day, until I got about 5 miles from home.  I suddenly wondered if I'd make it home before falling asleep.  LOL  I haven't left the chair since.  Still, though, I worked a full day, and that was my goal.

I win!

Chemo has been Scheduled

So yesterday, I just sat here.  Yup.  That's pretty much what I did.  I let the HVAC guy in to fix our a/c, and then I wrote a check to him.  I changed the channel several times, took medication and logged drain output.  Quite possibly the laziest day I've participated in for a LONG time.  If that's what it takes to get better fast, I'm going to have to heal slowly.  Jeez, what a long day.

I'll avoid running errands that aren't necessary (we'll leave those up to Kevin,) but I'm not going to sit in this chair 24/7, THAT'S for sure.  Today, I think I'll walk up to the post office.  All the way up town, by myself.  (Those who know this town will get the joke.  We're talking 4 blocks.)

I got a call from someone yesterday (I cannot keep track of what nurse is from what office anymore) but she was somehow affiliated with the oncologist.  I am to go in at 10:15 on May 22.  I'll have a meeting with the oncologist and then have my first chemo treatment.  I'm supposed to plan on being there for many hours, especially for the first visit.  Maybe as many as six!

The problem that I see (and it may not be a problem, but I'll be asking) is that I expect Jaxson to still be hanging around then.  I still have not dropped under 100cc in a 24 hour period, and it's got to get under 30.  If you aren't familiar with Jaxson, go to this post and read the last paragraph.  I didn't think to ask yesterday, but I have an email in to my favorite nurse/source of information to see what to do about it.  Maybe Jaxson will just go along for the ride.  LOL  He's always enjoyed a good road trip.

I slept in my own bed last night, and I believe I slept better than I have in three weeks.  Can you believe it's been three weeks?  I may try to make the transition back into there now.  This poor recliner deserves a break.  :)

A Disappointing Day

Yesterday was the follow-up appointment with my plastic surgeon.  I kind of expected to get one drain removed, although I knew that the other one would be staying.  The output has to be less than 30cc in 24 hours, and I have one that will do 30 cc in one draining.  The other, however, has been hovering right around that 30 cc area and I was pretty sure it would go.

So Dad offered to take me to Independence to meet Kevin, saving him 40 miles of driving to get me to this appointment.  He picked me up, stopped by Sonic for me (he's a good Daddy like that) and we met up with Kevin.  As I got out of Dad's car and into Kevin's truck, the air hit me (it was very blustery yesterday) and I thought, "Why does my side feel wet?"

We got all of my stuff transferred to the truck and Dad took off.  I asked Kevin to please look at my side as I raised up my jacket as high as my limited-motion arm will allow.  I was soaked from just under my armpit to the waistband of my jeans.  WTH????  I haven't had any issue like this since surgery.

So here we are in Independence, headed to Leawood, KS, and I'm soaked.  Kevin had requested that I bring his tennis shoes to him, and I had grabbed a T shirt, too, since he gets so dirty at work.  He had remembered a shirt, so I had a spare T shirt, although it was quite big.  The other problem was the bra being soaked, and not having an ace bandage (my typical undergarment lately) with me.

We find a CVS, and bought gauze and could NOT find a normal ACE bandage.  It's a PHARMACY for goodness sake!  The closest they had was the kind that sticks to itself.  It wasn't ideal, but it would work to get us there.  We paid and then went together into the ladies' room for him to wrap me to the best of his ability.  Have I mentioned Kevin's willingness to do whatever it takes?

So much for stopping for a nice dinner somewhere, since I was now in an ace bandage, well, you don't want to be seen that way for MANY reasons.  Not just the imbalance.  The drains have to go somewhere and, well, it was going to be a drive-through for dinner.  Period.  That resulted in us arriving at the plastic surgeon's office nearly two hours early.  Kevin saw our (amazingly wonderful) nurse, Terri, and explained the situation to her.  She got us back into a room super-fast, cut the stupid ACE thing off me and got me into a gown.  From there on, I didn't mind waiting.

When it was our turn, Terri showed me how to "strip" the drains, and one of them needed it, which was the reason for the small amount on the last log entry for that one.  Turns out, even the other (slower) one wasn't coming out yesterday.  I got sent home with both.  I wanted to cry.

Everything else was great news.  He (the surgeon) said that everything looked awesome and I was healing very well and he had no concerns.  He answered any questions that I had and said that drain one would probably come out on Monday.  We'll see.  LOL  Drain two will be a bit longer.  As aggravating as it is to have them, removing them too early can be catastrophic, and I understand that.  I just wanted to cry.

So we got in the truck, I took my overdue medication, and cried until falling asleep.  Poor Kevin.  LOL  We came home and I wanted to be alone, so I decided to try sleeping in my bed.  BAD choice.  I woke up this morning hurting quite a bit.  Getting a shower and a re-wrap helped a lot, but it's back to the recliner for me. I think it'll be a while before I can comfortably sleep in bed again.

The bottom line is:  I'm healing well.  I need to get over myself when there are little setbacks, and I need to be more thankful for my friends who care.  I also need to travel with spare clothing, but that's another issue all together.

Thanks to the 30 Day Photo Challenge, I must air some dirty laundry, as it were.  "Where You Sleep."  Seriously?  I thought about making my bed, picking up in there, dusting a bit, and taking a photo that I wouldn't be ashamed of.  And then I saw Monica's new Facebook profile picture today.  She took it in the mirror in my room.  *sigh*  Now everyone knows.

Unmade bed, makeup all over the dresser, stuff piled on the furniture.  Yeah.  Don't stop by my house unannounced unless you're comfortable with clutter.
::hanging head in shame::