Chemo #3

I almost forgot last week that I was scheduled for chemo today. It wasn't a big deal when I went through it either. At 9am I got a ride, got my blood test and a line started from my port, and waited to be called to infusion room #19. For some reason I always get the room right across from the nurses station, which is always sooooo loud. It's never any good gossip. It's not that I want to listen in on their HIPAA violations- I just want to hear about some interesting patient or see how the doctor's and nurse interact with each other. Instead most of them were concerned with their new electronic medical records system- which of course my nurse had no experience with. I guess she had been sick last week when they implemented the system and now had only used it for 2 days. She still figured most of it out but had to ask a bunch of people.

When I got there I waited for about 30 min for the blood results to come back. I made sure this time that I was well above the cutoff- although the nurse told me that it is generally safe to get the chemo if the count is 99 like last time. She said that it was probably better to concentrate on killing the cancer and taking a Neulasta shot, rather than missing a week because of a slightly low neutrophil count. I got a printout of all the labs and my liver function was normal as well as my chemistry. My white blood cells were low but at 150 which was fine for chemo. My hematocrit and hemoglobin, and protein were also low- which is probably why everyone has been commenting on how pale I was (I'm normally pale, live in sunniless Seattle, and have been wearing my dark-colored wigs so what do they expect!) What was interesting, was that I had gotten a blood test on Friday- which showed my white and red blood cells to be significantly higher. I was starting to think 'what the hell did I do to myself this weekend?' but then the onco-nurse came in and reassured me that this was most-likely due to the Neulasta shot wearing off (usually at the end of 3 weeks). She also said that from now on I had orders to get the Neulasta while I was doing chemo. I was confused because I was never told of this order so I had to clear everything up. I like this place and these people but I'm still frustrated with the communication process- all I want to know is my lab results and when I have appointments but that keeps taking so long...

I spent the whole day there until 5pm just eating oreos and watching TV/napping. I argued to not get the high Benadryl dose and won, but they gave me this other antihistamine which gave me a headache. I talked to the chaplain again, but mostly about my mom and how I was dealing with it. Which of course wasn't all that well. I just want to be in Illinois right now... I also questioned the nurse about the whole having to shave my legs thing, and she said that the reason that I still have leg hair is because that hair just doesn't grow that rapidly. That's what I thought. So weird though- it's like the hair on your head is racing to reach your toes.. at least mine is- I swear my hair always grew 3x as fast as everyone else's! So I still have to shave my legs, but I have been noticing thinning of my arm hair and my eyebrows. I REALLY want my eyebrows! Sucks cause my eyes are so itchy that I have to touch them all the time! Come on follicles- don't make me a freak!

Well that's all for now... Check out this shirt!