4th Round Completed!

Had a new nurse today. I liked her. We went on a vein search. My good vein is bruised beyond belief and she didn't want to use it. Well, because it hurts to get poked in a bruised vein. So I pointed out the veins that I have had success with in the past (with past IV for surgeries or blood draws) and ones that failed. I then told her that she is the one that did this every day so take a look and see if you find something you feel you can be successful at. So she did and she picked out a vein in my forearm. Now I never had an IV in my forearm and so I told her go for it. And she did. Poke and then she said dang it and pulled it right out. She said well its was nice a plump and as soon as I poked it, it disapeared. She said I don't know why. So now what do you want to try for. She said well, lets look at the vein that has been used although its bruised. So I told her your going to need to place the tie lower on my arm (towards my hand). She did and liked they way the vein was popping up but was worried about the bruising. I said you want to try it. She said if you'll let me. I said I'll just bite down, lets go for it. So she did. Amazingly it didn't hurt as much as the poke in the forearm. I told her hoping she wouldn't feel so bad about poking me in a bruised vein but that back fired because then she started appolgizing for having poked me in the forearm. Well I never been poked there before so how was anyone to know. Now I do. Forearm no good. The bruised vein was successful. She drew blood and was getting a great blood return. As usual. She said well old faithful came through again even bruised! I did work that vein out like crazy this past week. Squeezing the squeeze ball. Although it was bruised it did come through. Once again, it didn't fail me.

Greet The Day was there. Got a nice foot massage. And as soon as this woman placed her hands on me I knew this was a Reiki person. I said Reiki? She said with surprise yes. I told her I was level 3. We had an awesome energy exchange. At the end she said I received more from you than I gave and she thanked me. Greet the Day is a volunteer program and they do the foot massage for free but, most of the therapist who are trained in oncology massage therapy also have massage jobs. So I asked her where she worked. She told me and said she also does stuff on her own. I told I was going to be having surgery at some point and have a really hard time with it. I asked if she would come to the hospital when I come out of recovery and give me a treatment and she gave me her card and said absolutily she would do this and told me just to call her. I'm going to do this as soon as I have a surgery date and talk to my surgeon. I really think this will help me. Depending on when my surgery is and what time I might also talk to my internist. She is a Reiki master and came and gave me Reiki when I had trouble with my gallbladder surgery. Plus she gave me Xanax and that pulled me out of it. Also my insurance paid for it because she was able to bill it as a hospital visit which it was. So I might do that but, see this woman for an oncology massage before surgery. Look up Greet the Day they have a website and I think its a great organization.

Other great news, no reaction this time. Who knows why. So we were done by 2:30pm but, we didn't start treatment until about 10:30 because I had a list of things to go over with the nurse before we started. So total time for chemo was about 4 hours. Maybe even a little less with the vein search. List of things I went over. Well for starters I gave her one of the GUM toothbrushes that my Auntie E. sent me because when I talked to my PA on Monday she didn't know what those were. I didn't even know they exsisted and mouth sores can be a real big problem for chemo patients. She is going to share the tooth brush and info I shared with the doctors in the office. So my Auntie E. has contributed more than just to my treatment and will be helping others. Love you.

I also got a letter yesterday from my lab stating that Dr. Barth had these other things tested on my tumor tissue. I wasn't aware he had other stuff tested besides the oncotype dx test and because I just got the letter, I didn't know if he even had the results back. So I asked the nurse to check. We all got busy with other stuff and well I forgot and so did she. But, I'll be seeing him after the 6th of July and I know he will have the results by then so, I'll just ask him. He's the only one that can go over that stuff with me anyway so no biggie.

Chris sat with me most of the time today. Dad sat with me the first hour and then here comes Chris. He was a little outraged because he had gone up to the receptionist, who is really nice and loves my hats, and said can I go into the back and sit with my mother and she reply no you can't go be with your mother. Well, my kid being literal said OK and then she said of course you can go back and be with your mother go on back. He was outraged. He said ok I knew then that she was messing with me but I don't think that was nice. When someone wants to be with their mother people shouldn't mess around like that. I said well, I know her and she was probably just trying to lighten the mood by making an attempt to mess with you and she didn't leave you hanging long before she told you go on back. He said yea but, I thought she was serious until she said of course you can go back and I didn't like it. All I can say is good thing she didn't drag it out or mess with the kid long because I think he was probably on the verge of blowing after he said OK. I think an explosion was most likely in the makings. I can't blame him.

So beside the extra poke which I can tell is not going to leave a bruise or anything because she yanked it right back out when it wasn't going to work and didn't try to poke around thank God. It was a good round. My kid amazed me again by coming back into chemo land and finding me. Sitting there for a good three hours while watching his mother get poison poured into her. And when they started the chemo that I have had the reaction to he was watching the clock and every ten or fifteen minutes he would ask me if I felt anything. He also noticed the small air bubbles that sometimes get into an IV. He somehow instinctively knew that could be a bad thing and he panicked a bit until I explained that small bubbles don't do anything it has to be the whole line of air going in to create a bubble in your blood that can cause trouble. He still didn't like it and when one would form he would watch it go down the line and poof into my vein. Then frown. Yea I had to reassure him a lot. Then my nurse came by and I explained to her his concerns and she took the time to reassure him. He seemed to relax after that. Mom and Dad popped their heads in once in a while to see how it was going. And Dad's timing was good because he came in just as I was unhooked and ready to go.

Got home and I actually fell asleep for about an hour. That's a feat on steroids. Maybe I can actually get some sleep tonight. That usually doesn't happen until Friday night. Off to eat my cheerios and take another dose of Metamucil. And pushing water.