Chemo - Day 3

On today's menu - a short chemo day and a pet scan.

I picked mom up around 10 am.  Not feeling great today.  Very tired and nauseous and coughing a little more than she has been the past two days.  We got to the infusion center and it was crazy busy.  It took them about 10 minutes to finally get to her and hook her up.  Just fluid and Etopside today. Everything went along smoothly.  She read for a little while and dozed a little bit.

Kinda funny story I'll share here.  Now keep in mind, even though the infusion center is really busy, and there are patients and family members, and nurse's constantly moving around, it is fairly quiet.  A lot of the patients sleep while getting their treatment and everyone is pretty respectful of the fact that some patients don't feel well.

In the chair to the right of mom was this really old lady.  Apparently she had been brought in by a home aide nurse who was sitting in the chairs in the center of the room.  As I already mentioned, she was old.  She didn't have any teeth or dentures and her mouth was so sunken in, you could barely see her lips.  Anyways, she was eating a sack lunch.  Sandwich and some cheese puffs or something.  She was chewing in this huge motion like a cow masticating,  and food crumbs kept spilling out of her mouth.  Mom and I did our best not to look at her while she was eating.  As soon as she was done, she let out this huge burp.  Super loud.  But she didn't even seem fazed and didn't try to excuse herself or anything.  Mom and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh.   She seemed to settle down quietly after that.  Mom was kinda dozing in her chair and I was reading my book when all of a sudden we hear this blood curdling yell "Nurse!!!"  I'm telling you, I almost fell out of my chair, she startled me so much.  Her home aide nurse came running and the lady started pointing at her IV bag.  It was empty.  (Which either means you are done, or ready for your next bag of  whatever cocktail you happen to be receiving.)  In any event it's not a big deal, cause the nurses constantly walk around checking on everyone.  So that was our little drama for the day!!

So chemo was done about 12:15p and she had an appointment for the PET scan at 1pm.  When went outside and sat in the sunshine for a few minutes and then went back inside and registered on the off chance that they could take her early.  They were able to take her early and we left the hospital about 2:15 pm.  Mom was starving so we stopped at Taco Bell and got a Burrito.  Guess it's a good sign that she was hungry.  (Wanting Taco Bell when you don't feel good comes from Danielle.  Ciara is the same way!)

So tomorrow, she just has her Nuelasta shot which is supposed to help her create healthy new blood cells.and boost her blood counts.

Assuming nothing else happens between now and then, her next appointment is on Tuesday with the surgeon to get her Access Port put in.  Yea!  No more needle sticks!