I thought I was being proactive submitting a refill to the VA for the prednisone I need to take with my chemo, and I thought two weeks would be enough time to get it before I needed it. Guess again. The holiday weekend threw a monkey wrench in that plan. When Tuesday’s mail was put up, the refill still hadn’t come, so I scrambled over to the VA to plead my case. Lo, and behold, I had no problem getting it, as well as four sacks of groceries besides on the way back. (And remembered to take my cart with me when I left to begin my mad scramble.) (And forgot to get butter.)
Wednesday was an uphill day. I had to be at JACC at 8 o’clock in the morning of a cloudy day with a chance of T-storms. (We’re having one as I write this, as it happens. Flashy bangies coming right up, hopefully with a side of rain, hold the hail, please.) Same old drill: Wait in the big waiting room till they call me into the phlebotomy area to get the access put into my chemo port and get blood drawn for labs. Then it’s across to the doctors’ offices to wait in their waiting room until I get called into my oncologist’s exam room. He was delighted that I’m tolerating the Rituxan so well and apparently, my labs are very good because instead of getting COP one day and Rituxan and Udenyca the next, I get to wait in one waiting room for an hour, wait in another waiting room for an hour, before I even get back to the infusion area. By then it’s almost 1 o’clock. I’ve gotten most of my sandwich and Cheetos eaten while I’m still in the waiting room. It’s nearly 2 o’clock before I’m back in my chair with my phone plugged in, my ear buds in and my tunes going, and I’m knocking back a handful of prednisone tabs. I get the decadron first. Next is the Rituxan, which is dissolved in about three-fourths of a liter of saline (I get it one drip at a time and get my blood pressure taken every 15 minutes until I’ve had half of it –in case of side effects — then it gets cranked up to 3 drips at a time) followed by a 10-minute line flush with plain saline. By then it’s sneaking up on 5 o’clock and the few people (including me) who aren’t done yet are all moved down to one end so the 4 nurses who will stay late can keep an eye on us, because I’ve still got cyclophosphamide and a line flush, and the Vincristine and a line flush to go before my port access gets taken out and I finally hit the pavement at 6:15 to slosh my way home. I got a lot of knitting done on the baby blanket edging though (only two panels left!), finished reading a book, and took a little nap because I only got about 5 hours of sleep Tuesday night. (I haven’t slept since my nap Wednesday and it’s the wee owls of Friday already. I spent Wednesday evening and night with the foot of my bed raised to keep my legs emptied out so my ankles won’t balloon.
I made a brief appearance Thursday for my shot of Udenyca to get my white blood cell count back up after the chemo crashed it. I was in and out in an hour. On the way home, I picked up the butter I forgot and five or six other things I needed, paid my mom’s beauty saloon tab, and got a free hair trim in exchange for a little natter with the stylist. My hair is long enough that the natural curl is starting a wave in back and the ends were getting raggedy, so she neatened it for me.
My poor little kidneys (and my my three working brain cells) are doing the hampster wheel thing trying to catch up after Wednesday’s fluid dump, and I’ve had to hit the Chai tea and Coca Cola so the caffeine will get out and push. Friday, I’ve got to be there at 9 a.m. for my first liter of saline to help flush this mess out.
Amazon had this little console table that’s long enough and tall enough to clear the under-window HVAC unit and it came Thursday. I’ve got to repot 2 plants and then they’ll all go on the console table (some assembly required) right next to the window. The Italian stone(d) pine is doing the snake dance trying to get to the light and it needs to be closer to and farther down along the window sill where the dining table isn’t (and the tree outside isn’t) to get the most available sunlight. I got it when I was in the other apartment and it had a good sunny window there. The windows in this apartment have a tree in the way.
The table is 48 inches long, so I’ll line my little green darlings up on it in order of how much light they need. The table assembly and the repotting can wait until Saturday. (It’s raining now. Yay! We’ll take every drop we can get.)
I’m going to try to finish the baby blanket Friday and maybe start the little dress Sunday. If I can get my rear in gear and the creeks don’t rise, I may be able to do a dress in the same yarn and same pattern for the new baby’s older sister (they’re 16 months apart!). Matching red dresses that will fit them right at Christmas time — Christmas card photo! I have enough of the red yarn (Malabrigo Sock in Tiziano red) to do two dresses. I also have a freebie skein of Malabrigo Sock in Turner green, and I’m thinking maybe headbands with some crochetted holly leaves and berries . . . . We’ll see what kind of time (and energy and brain cells) I have. (Boy, the rain is really coming down now! Yipee!)
Five down; one more to go.
The Owl Underground 