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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Day 118: Sleep & Food Deprived

YES...that is right I am sleep and food deprived.

So yesterday after the doctor finally came to have me sign my treatment papers everything was set to start chemo (yay!) and get it over with. but of course....that never happens....it wouldn't be a true hospital stay without "bad news." WELL, it wasn't that bad. Basically they hooked me up to pre-hydration fluids and told me they need a urine sample to test the pH level (gross right??). Don't ask me WHY they wanted to test it, I heard it, it made sense, but I couldn't repeat it back to anyone. lol. if you're really curious...google it or ask my med school friends. lol. Anyways, so they needed it to be at least a 7 to get started on the chemo. So I finally went to the restroom and it was a.................6.5. fail. So for about 30 minutes I slammed cup after cup of water down my throat and on top of the hydration fluids going, I had to go again in no time! Test number 2..........6.6. UGH. So once again chugged cups of water like wrestlers chug in college and test number 3...........6.8. PROGRESS!! So then I took a different approach, I let the hydration fluids run through me the first 20 minutes to get all the "Medications" down in my bladder THEN I would fill up the rest of my bladder with water to push it all out!....genius....So I sat around reading a book (WHAT???!! seriously, who am I....me...reading?? YUCK! I blame debbie curry for reading so much around me. LOL. love you deb!) for 20 minutes and then I challenged myself to drinking 8 cups of water in 10 minutes....yeah I got to 5 and almost exploded b/c I had so much fluid in me. hahaha! (it's a hospital, I gotta find ways to entertain myself) ANYways...test number 4....7.1...yeaaahhhhh buddddyyy!!

So chemo was ready to start. They gave me my normal pills that go along with my chemo and by this time i was SOO tired and ready to go to sleep. It was around 2am after test #4. My nurse was kinda running around in and out of my room so I was trying to stay up with her to figure out what the heck was going on. She was a fun lady and entertaining so it really wasn't all that hard. THe first bag of chemo was a tiny little bag that goes over 2 hours so she started that and let me go back to sleep. And 2 hours later...my IV was beeping and it woke me up. I was kinda in a daze for a bit because I was so tired that I didn't know what I was doing. I kinda just stared at the machine and started pushing buttons...lol. Then I was like, OH, I know what to do. So I pushed stop and called my nurse so we can get the next bag of chemo started. By the time she had got everything together and switched out my IV pole (i have to have the MONSTER IV thingy b/c so many fluids are going through me) it was around 7am!! ugghhh...and by this time I was REALLY tired. I didn't care so much to try to keep my nurse company and ask a million questions like I was trying to before so I just laid on my pillow and tried to ignore everyone. lol. THEN my NEW nurse came in....because it was shift change time and of course, she had a nursing student so I'm sure I was extra rude at first, then I noticed what was going on and quickly go up gave a polite hi to my nurses. I was happy to get a nurse who I already knew and she remembered a lot of the conversations that we had during my previous hospital stays.Another nurse popped her head in and said hi once she "heard" I was back in. She is a sweet nurse probably in her upper twenties early thirties. She always went out of her way to say hi or offer encouraging words even if I wasn't her patient for the day/night.

ANYWAYS, the next bag of chemo is a HUGE bag. It will constantly run over 24 hours so tomorrow at 7am I'll be awaken once again...if i'm not already awake. lol. something to look forward to. Something new they started was they're going to have me sign a sheet of paper everyday I have chemo. They said chemo can cause neurological damage (hmmm sounds familiar!!) so a simple signature over days can tell a lot....And I have a crazy signature as it is so that should be interesting.

After the bag had been hung and started my head attending doctor for this round of chemo came in to briefly talk to me...which I thought was weird b/c usually the students are sent in first, then the residents, then whoever else wants to talk to me, THEN everyone comes in and observes the way the attending doc speaks and what is going on. So anyways, she had said that they are going to put a halt on chemo....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......because my white blood cell count JUMED down from yesterday when I got admitted. apparently they were at a 2.5 and they jumed down to a 1.5. She said she would put in the orders and let the nurses know. But she didn't. Then as more people started to come in I told all my nurses and doctors and they said well, we dont have the orders for it so it must've not been too urgent. so on with the chemo! I"ll just have to be EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA careful when I get out because i'm starting with my counts so low. My hemoglobin is at a 7.7...also down from the day before. weird right?
OH and my potassium is low. awesome.

So overall, I'm just tired today. I ordered some food but I'm not really that hungry and I'm stuck in my room forever (7am tomorrow) so I'm going to eventually catch up on my shows and sleep. Which I say that but it usually never happens that way. I get so distracted who knows what I'll actually do.

Okay so that's the news for today....chemo is still on but that could change as soon as the doc's come back to see me. oh JOY. For now...time to catch the last part of THE VIEW!

adios.

kim

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