Will be trying to do as much sleeping as possible this weekend.
Not that I’ll probably have much say in the matter.
I’m soooo happy my arm & hand don’t hurt!
sleeping is good…
24 Friday Apr 2009
24 Friday Apr 2009
Will be trying to do as much sleeping as possible this weekend.
Not that I’ll probably have much say in the matter.
I’m soooo happy my arm & hand don’t hurt!
casa azahar 
Dear me, all I can remember is a book of art reproductions from my distant childhood, each with a LOL type caption pulled from current advertising. This work was captioned with the slogan of Bon Ami cleanser: “Hasn’t scratched yet.”
Happy Z’s.
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Well, I did wonder when using the pic if it would seem I was happy the hand & arm weren’t painful anymore so they could be put to *ahem* better use. Let me know if the ad slogan comes back to you, Sled.
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And here I just assumed that the sleeping nude’s scratching had some thing to do with cooties…
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Oh, I do love sleep. (Why is it that I don’t focus on that love when I stay up too late goofing off online?)
I wish you pleasant dreams.
(I’m so glad that your hand and arm don’t hurt! They used the port? It was better?)
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“Why is it that I don’t focus on that love when I stay up too late goofing off online?”
If it weren’t for the vasty age difference I’d suggest that we’d been separated at birth, alejna.
Yes, they used the port and yes it was infinitely better. I sat there watching all the other people in my section getting it in the hand and felt so sorry for them. I wonder how many people even know about this option. Dr Ana said they usually wait for one of the chemo nurses to recommend that a patient have a port, probably to keep costs down.
During the “flood of tears” appointment I had with Dr Ana she said I couldn’t just pop in and demand a port because people on an internet forum said I should have one. It was during the next appointment when I showed her my graph of side effects that she realised “chemo hand & arm” were seriously affecting my quality of life.
Difference of opinion at the Pain Clinic though. I stopped in there before my chemo session yesterday because Dr Santiago had said he wanted to have a look at it first. He was explaining the procedure to an intern while he tidied things up (it had bled a bit) and put in the needle gizmo for the chemo. And he said to the intern that he didn’t understand why this wasn’t standard procedure for all chemo patients, and went on about patients who had come in with the skin on their arms all chemically burnt and with their veins destroyed. I think this must have been why he was so keen on squeezing me in last Tuesday, rather than have me go through another chemo session without a port. Very nice guy.
And I am finally “getting” Dr Ana, which is good. She is basically a no-nonsense sort of person who can come across as a bit brusque, but as Susan pointed out, it’s amazing what she keeps in her head. And after she had reshuffled all her papers and started talking she made sure that all the bases had been covered and actually wrote down everything I said about the side effects.
When I asked if she’d had time to see the PET results yet, she kind of went “oops” and immediately printed it off and read it, saying that there are doubts about both lesions found. The assumption that the liver one is malignant is based on it’s in the very same place the original ones were last summer. And they’re not even sure where the second lesion is, organ-wise, so they’re assuming it’s the same peritoneal mass they biopsied in November (they’d removed one of them but had to leave the one that was too close to an artery). So we might just be chasing ghosts, as Dr Ana put it, but better to be safe than sorry.
Ghosts or not, I still want to go through the whole six sessions (Dr Ana is being vague about what’s going to happen after the third one is finished). I’m careful never to bring up internet forums around her anymore, but from what I’ve been reading, people usually go through 10-12 sessions of my same treatment.
Anyhow, one step at a time. Dr Ana got up when I left, actually smiled at me and rubbed my back, and said if I had any questions or concerns to call or text her mobile.
So, I have just taken my morning Emend and Lorazepam (the Dexammet and the chemo pills are for after brekky), washed down with some heated up water, so I think I’ll see if I can catch another hour or two of shut-eye. Some very pretty bird song outside my balcony windows at the moment … no idea what they are.
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Sounds like it was much better. I’m with Dr. Santiago. Yes, I’m sure that they do it to keep down costs, but they could do something less permanent like a subclavian line or a PICC line, and keep down costs while still allowing the patient a greater degree of comfort, and not screw up their veins. If they are getting people with their veins sclerosed and the skin on their arms chemically burnt, then they are being penny wise and pound foolish, because those things take a lot more time and money to treat.
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Well, I don’t plan on taking mine out until I hit the five-year “all clear” (should I be so lucky). It’s just gonna make everything so much easier. No more jabs for blood tests (and no fuckwit asking me if it’s an artery or a vein), ditto for CT and PET scans. I’ve had some pretty awful experiences with the CT nurses jabbing my poor hands all over the place.
Oh, and the good news is that I can go back to yoga class next week. 🙂
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Hmmm, how can I stop having that comment & reply background with alejna BLUE. It just happened now when I added the reply button thingy. I hate pastels, bleh. And you might have notice the serious absence of blue on every one of my websites and blogs. It is not a coincidence!
Not to say I don’t like – or even love – seeing blue blogs and other wonderful blue things, but it’s just not for me. One of the many reasons I stopped wearing blue jeans about 25 years ago. Cos they were blue.
Wow, this Lorazepam really works! I think I might stop missing the midday one though such a zombie.
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Have to say this theme looksa bt wasjed out – on hte old version of IE I use at “work”
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Almost all my blogs and websites work like shit on IE. I’ve looked at casa az on IE and the right sidebar shows up under the left one. Duh. And on Sevilla Tapas the right sidebar doesn’t start until half-way down the page, which is very bad since the drop-down restaurant menu should be at the top. Grrrrr, hate IE.
Have bumped up the orange lettering a bit. Easier to read?
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Much better – for whatever reason, even the “can you help” “about azahar” etc items in the title bar were impossible to read before – fine now.
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Not to mention the effect it has on my typing skills
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:aside:
I reckon the reason the artist painted the model with her hand “there” is that he wasn’t very good at doing pubes.
:/aside:
😀
I’m delighted that the port’s been such a success – and that Dr Ana’s showing her caring side.
Consider yourself hugged.
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Yeah. A hug from me too.
TRiG.
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Hope you are getting lots of good sleep and your dreams are pleasant.
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