On Tuesday I had my first appointment with my doctor in Eugene. It seems like ages ago. We met him, he casually said he thought we could start treatment the next Monday, and I replied that I was actually supposed to start LAST Monday. Long story short, he runs out of the room, builds a program that makes it so other people can see what drugs I need, when, and then proceeds to order as many of my chemo drugs as he possibly can, does some improvisation, gets my blood tested, and had almost every nurse on the entire floor doing something in order to start my treatment that very day. Wednesday and Thursday I went back for regular chemo treatments, without too much chaos other than driving a total of 3 hours each day for an hour long chemo infusion.
Friday I had a lumbar puncture, which was supposed to happen at a different hospital, and after about 10 phone calls and much confusion I was told to just come to RiverBend in the main hospital. When they came to get me for the procedure I had heard nothing of any anti-anxiety meds, so I asked for them. Apparently some tough people don't need them? We spent the next 30 minutes with about 4 different people trying to get me in their system, in order to write me a prescription for the drug, to get the drug, and give it to me before I was rolled down 6 floors for my procedure. The procedure was much different than the other 3 times I've had lumbar punctures. Usually they are very quick, and I am either laying on my side or sitting, in my normal clothes. This time I had to lay flat on my stomach, and they used an x-ray machine to be sure that their needles were in the right places, and I had to wear the stupid "your butt is showing" hospital gown. Unfortunately that means the procedure took much longer than usual. Afterward I laid flat for an hour again in my fancy room, and then went over to the clinic to get my chemotherapy infusion for the day.
Saturday my clinic I usually go to is closed, but since we got a bit behind on my first day of chemo I had to make it up on Saturday in order to be on schedule. We met the nurses, got things rolling right away, with only a few hitches: They didn't have my med list, and they didn't have an order for me to receive IV nausea meds before my chemo (At this point I am super nauseas from 4 consecutive days of chemo, and I have an incredible headache from my lumbar puncture the day before, a common side effect). So we move into just getting the chemo, I figure the sooner we get it going to sooner I get to go home and not drive to Eugene again for 2 whole days. We have all sorts of issues, and can't figure out why the chemo isn't working- the pump is beeping constantly (awesome for my headache). After trying to fix the problem for an hour, we realize it's because my PICC line is clogged on the inside, and nothing can flow through it. Over the course of the next 2 hours I have 3 different nurses trying to fix it, giving me an IV, and redoing the chemo through my new poke. We were finally done 3 hours later, I was asleep by 7:00 that night and slept for 14 hours.
I forgot to mention, during all of this my right foot was reacting to one of my antibiotics and I had a tendonitis sort of situation, where I couldn't put any weight on my foot.
What. A. Week.
I started writing this post during that crazy week, and now the next one is already almost over as well! This week has not been quite as chaotic, and I'm 3/4 of the way through my treatments this week! However, that headache from my lumbar puncture on Friday? It's STILL with me. And I'm not talking just an annoying little headache, I'm talking can't function, shut up and turn off the lights headache. The good news is it usually goes away when I'm laying down, so I have been spending almost all of my spare time laying down. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a lot of spare time. Because I can't quite bare to start over again before the headache even goes away, I postponed my lumbar puncture that was supposed to be this Friday, and will continue them starting next Friday (a glorious 3 more, in a row!)
And I stopped taking the antibiotic that was causing the reaction, and my foot is almost all better!
So, I guess the chaos continues?
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