Swing of things

I guess with week two, we're getting into the swing of things. Although I can't really say that things are getting any easier, at least we know what to expect. Kind of anyway. We know where things are on the chemo floor. We know who to see to get lab work done. We know the nicer nurses. We how where to go to get checked in fast, and we know how to go back and remind them if it's taken more than 15 minutes. We're getting into the groove.

We started out the week on Tuesday with a visit to the Urologist (aka the Kidney doctor). It's been decided that on Friday, I'll be getting a stent put into my kids to help it drain, because at this point, it has zero function. Honestly though, right now I don't even care if I lose it or it goes back to working; I just want the pain to be gone. I feel so not like myself. I either am in terrible pain, or I'm so doped up on pain medication that I'm not me. I don't know why people go out and try for that feeling....it's such an out of control reality that it's a type of pain in and of itself.

Anway, I digress. It was decided that Friday is my surgery for the kidney stent. On Wednesday, it was round two of chemo. Week two also means two drugs, which are hung consectutive (one right after another) of each other, and a longer day treatment visit. When it came time for the second drug though, things didn't go as planned, and I had some terrible reaction to it; my chest got tight - I compared it to an elephant sitting on me - and I had a hard time breathing. Right away they pulled the treatment and gave me some benedryl. After things calmed down, we restarted the treatment, and after a few minutes, it turned into the same reaction, so we stopped. Which meant that I had to go back today and try again. It took us five hours to do a two hour treatment, because we had to go so slowly, but it's done.

We then had an appointment it the Hemotology Onconlogist - the chemo doctor. She deleted some medications, upped me on some others, and added still more. We're set up for a port insertion somewhere before my next chemo treatment; it means I'll get a permanant port for my chemo treatments and lab draws - no more needle sticks! Yay for me, because I have a serious phobia of needles. She also somewhat warned me of taking more care to stay away from people that could be sick and/or large crowds, because my white blood count is very low and I am susceptible to infections easily. I'll still go to church (because I want to), but if I go out in public otherwise, I need to wear a mask or take precautions to stay away from people. I'm turning into such a freak.

I also have to go back to the cancer floor tomorrow to get a injection that will boost my white blood count. My understanding is that it's very painful, both during and after, and causes a lot of bone pain. Yay, something else to look forward to.

And now it's time to close. I'm so tired that I can barely keep my words straight, but I want to write things while they're fresh in my mind. So goodnight world....I hope for dreams that are pleasant and completely cancer free.