Welp, I’m baa-aaack. Got checked in this morning a bit after 10am and was taken up to my room. Whew! I’m once again on the south side of South Tower, which means I’ll have wonderful sun exposure on the days when it isn’t overcast. The room is a bit smaller than my other rooms were but it isn’t really an issue, especially now given the new restrictions that have been put in place. No one 18 or under is allowed in the unit, which means that unless the girls want to meet me just outside the bank of elevators on this floor, they won’t be able to visit me. There isn’t an entry lobby here either, only a hallway, so no place to sit down for a chat. In addition, the Food & Nutrition folks who used to come in to the patients’ rooms to take meal orders are also no longer allowed in the unit. They’ll now take orders by phone and deliver the meal trays to the nurses, who will then take them to the patients. All this, on top of everything else the nursing staff have to do during their 12-hour shifts. Eep. This is all due to the coronavirus crackdown. The city of San Antonio declared a public health emergency last week and the hospital is doing all it can to protect the health of its patients. I can certainly appreciate that because I was wondering how all this brouhaha was going to be handled. Still, I’m going to miss seeing my girls!

Jeepers, I should have ordered more for lunch. My tray came at about 1:15 and the plate was clean five minutes later. SNARF. I’ve already wheedled some vanilla ice cream out of my nurse and now I’m pondering asking for another snack. Ritz Bitz… I’m sure they’re filled with disgusting chemicals that I can’t even pronounce but I love them anyway. And I know the unit sometimes has them available. Hmmm… 🤔

OH – I should mention that I’m up to 138 pounds! That means that, even if I lose 8-10 lbs over the course of this next cycle, I’ll still be close to what I’m considering my lowest acceptable weight. I don’t want to go any lower than 130 or I’ll start to disappear.

Just got my new PICC line installed. It’s once again in my left arm but this time the entry point is a bit lower and goes into a deeper vein. The tech who put it in didn’t want to further stress the vein that was used last cycle, which I appreciate. Still, it’s more uncomfortable this time around, almost like the bicep muscle has been affected in some way. It may be just the local anesthetic that’s making my arm feel funky. We’ll see.

I asked my nurse whether I would be receiving the spinal tap today and she said that it will most likely happen tomorrow. Good, I can start guzzling water again! I have to lie absolutely flat on my back for three hours post-tap or risk a monstrous headache and so of course I can’t visit the loo. I actually had to use a bed pan last cycle because I was about to explode and couldn’t get out of bed. Ghastly! I swore then that I would limit my pre-procedure liquid intake in order to avoid that in the future.

I scored two small bags of Ritz Bits from my nurse and was nibbling them while chatting with Rory and the girls on FaceTime. Lauren informed me that I eat like an alpaca. ?!? 🦙 Okay, so the emoji is actually a llama. What? no alpaca emoji? That’s just wrong.

It’s after 9pm and we’re still waiting for the bag of Rituxin to be sent up by the pharmacy. *Sigh* I’m sure that as soon as I crawl into bed for the night all hell will break loose. Blurgh…