So I had chemo yesterday and completely overreacted to something. It has taken me until today to completely calm down, which is really silly, because it wasn't a big deal at all. We go into oncology early to get my blood drawn. It then gets sent to the lab "stat" so that it will be done in time for me to see the doctor and have treatment. The nurse got me all hooked up and then I could tell something wasn't right. I don't watch what she's doing, but it seemed like something was different. She then told me that she couldn't draw any blood. I got a huge pit in my stomach and started crying. She explained that this happens with port-a-caths and that it is really common and not a big deal. My choices were have something injected into it so that it would clear (this would take an hour and make me late for my doctors appointment and treatment) or I could get my blood drawn the old fashioned way from the lab. I choose the lab, because that seemed the 'easiest'. As much as I hate extra needles, I'm not doing anything to jeopardize not getting my chemo. Luckily we saw a tech who we know and she was very fast and it was pretty painless. After, we went back to oncology were I had the injection to clear out my port. Everything is back to working order.
The doctor's appointment went fine, all my blood work is still looking good. I somehow managed to drop a couple of pounds though. I think becasue my weight had stabilized, I stopped actively trying to gain weight. Oops. Back on the eating as much fat and calories as possible diet. I'm guessing if I stopped with all the clean eating and started eating Christmas goodies I would gain it back pretty fast, but I think that would cause me more harm than good. I'm pretty confident I'll gain it back by my next appointment. I have just found a recipe for raw, sugarless, nanaimo bars that looks pretty good. I think that might help.
Yesterday completely exhausted me. It was a really busy day in oncology so we didn't get home until almost 6pm! The stress of the blood test really took a toll on me as well. I had a good sleep last night though and am feeling really well today. We put up and decorated our tree and made some Christmas puppets. Sophie and I put on a puppet show for Will and Liam. It was quite entertaining.
Tomorrow should be interesting....Will is removing my port-a-cath for me. I have total confidence in him, but I am still a little nervous. Wish us luck!
Just for record I am not removing the port-a-cath, I am just disconnecting the infuser that pumps the chemo into the port-a-cath. It is pretty straightforward and I was happy to learn how to do it, since it makes the treatment schedule more flexible. But, I really wish I didn't have this expanding set of medical skills.
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