GRATITUDES:
1. Rory – my rock, my anchor
2. A great hospital room
3. A happy, beaming Dr. Bachier
4. A big bag of Fritos 😄
After a hectic week of nail biting and worry, I’ve finally settled into what will be my home for the next month. There were some road bumps along the way – namely, my appointment with the radiologist on Wednesday, which didn’t go at all well due to their equipment being down. I ended up having only a consultation with Dr. Ha instead of what I thought would be the full Monty, which consists of thorough body measurements for accurate targeting of the radiation beam. When I went back this afternoon for the second half of the appointment, I was led into the room that housed the actual radiation machine. It was impressive, filling most of the available space in the room, with the ability to rotate 360º on both an X and Y axis. Despite the horror stories the radiologist tech told me about puking patients, Dr. Bachier has assured me that the actual radiation dose I’ll be exposed to will be relatively minor and no cause for alarm. Still, I sincerely hope that I’ll be loaded up with anti-nausea meds on the day of the TBI (Total Body Irradiation) because I. Do. NOT. Want. To. Puke!
Lordy. It’s nearly 8:30pm and my first chemo infusion still hasn’t started. I probably won’t get much sleep tonight! My nurse has just given me some anti-nausea meds (Zofran is our friend) and a whopper of a potassium pill. Plus, I get to receive injections to prevent DVT (deep vein thrombosis). I’ve had one of those before. I do NOT want to do that again. On the plus side, I’ve figured out how to adjust my room’s thermostat. Well, sort of. It was freezing when I walked in here this afternoon and the temp has been dropping steadily. I’ve managed to turn on the heater but I don’t know how to turn it off. The thermostat mode is also set to Celsius and I don’t yet know how to change it, so I’m dealing with a bit of a learning curve here. No one else seems to know how to deal with it either because it’s a brand-new unit, apparently. Great. I may end up stewing myself alive, like a lobster in a pot.🦞