September 2, 2007

4:00am the phlebotomist shows up at my door for more blood.. I am beginning to feel like there are vampires loose in COX hospital... they want blood several times a day.. :-( .. I can not go back to sleep and am happy I am in a private room because I can watch TV...

The chemo is still running into my veins through my port. The bag has to be replaced with MORE F5U.. everytime they change out the bag they have to flush the port... they do the same thing to my IV... the saline that they flush the port or IV with ... I can actually TASTE... when the nurses flush the lines... BLAH!! It's really nasty!

Just about 8AM... the man with the wheelchair shows up to take me over to the Hulston Center for my radiation treatment... Radiation treatments don't FEEL like anything when you are under the machine.. you really don't feel anything. You just lay there... but within 2 hours the heat coming off the pelvic area is unbelievable.. I continue to take bags and bags of crushed ice to sit on and pack my pelvic area... I am now using lots of Aquaphor but I need to make sure the Aquaphor or any lotion/salve is OFF my pelvic area right before my radiation treatments otherwise it will intensify the treatments and the burns will be worse!

Here I am at the very beginning of my treatments and I am so sick already... and the radiation burns are coming on strong... I can't even imagine what a mess I will be in a couple of months!!


The diarrhea has started and nothing will stop it.. I am taking 6-8 Imodium a day... and the Dr had told me I can take more... literally the minute I think I need to go to the bathroom.. it has already happened... This SUCKS... The Imodium is giving me such bad gas that I am glad I'm on a morphine drip and pain patch...

The cancer floor is a nice place to be.. the nurses are especially caring and you are allowed to order food from a special kitchen. The food is VERY good even though I am not usually very hungry!

I sleep a lot because of the heavy pain meds but when I am not sleeping I watch TV. Not a lot of channels but they do have BRAVO and I've also been watching LA INK... I love any show with FOOD.. so TOP CHEF is one of my favs... I just dream of the day I can eat yummy food and enjoy it again!!

Sept 3rd, 2007

4:00am the phlebotomist is back again... even though this is Labor Day... I will be doing radiation for 8 days straight... right through the holiday weekend!! I order early breakfast.. I have found that if I eat early I can usually hold down the food because by 2:00pm I am pretty nauseous and towards 5:00pm I tend to throw up.. even the Zophran only works so good!

Since today is a holiday I have a lot of people visiting. I ask the nurse if I can take a shower and wash my hair.. they are reluctant... I ask if my husband can help me. They know he works at the FED MED and has a lot of emergency training... and they agree. I quickly call JR and ask him to bring some stuff to help me... and he agrees... It's been almost a week since I've had a real shower!!

When JR arrives he tells me he's brought his swim trunks TOO.. LOL.. my modest husband.. he's afraid a nurse will walk in to the bathroom!! The nurse comes in and removes my chemo and IVs.. and then covers my port with plastic and tapes up the plastic to protect the port area...

I am extremely unstable and can only BARELY move my right leg. JR gets into the shower with me and holds me up... There is no way I can stand up on my own! I wash my hair which completely drains me.. and then lightly wash myself off.. I am so tired by this time I really need to sit down! I am extremely thin and it's easy for JR to hold me up! JR picks me up and puts me on the hospital bed... and helps me get dressed... Then helps me brush out my hair.. I won't blow my hair dry because it takes too much energy!!

The nurse comes back in and hooks me back up to chemo and my IV... I fall asleep for a while until visitors start coming in... my daughter and her husband... my other daughter and her fiance... people from the church.... some friends from JR's work... it's hard to stay awake with this morphine drip...