I thought I'd have a doctor free week last week (my only doctor free week until the middle of March, yikes!), but no such luck. On Wednesday night I noticed that the bruise I had from an unsuccessful IV stick from my MRI two weeks ago had doubled in size and had a fresh blue hue to it. Yikes! My vein was leaking! I called the doctor and was told to come in the next day at 10:30 (urgh, this meant I had to get a sub at work). Well, better to get it checked out; I'm figuring my platelets are really low and I may even need a transfusion. So I head over to the cancer center at 10:30, blood is drawn, and I head upstairs to see the nurse practitioner. When I finally saw her (1.5hrs later) she said my labs looked fine (woo hoo!). She looked at my arm and I retold the story of the bad stick by the radiologist. She said it sounds like this whole thing is just a result of poor technique and me bumping it just right. She even apologized for having me come in. What did I learn from all this? I'll be going to the cancer center before my future scans to get my IV started- they're experts at starting IVs!
In other news, my hair is starting to fall out again. I was trying to put off shaving my head as long as possible but tonight I gave up. I was shedding everywhere and my scalp really hurt, so it's hat time again!
The weather here is completely gorgeous so Keith and Red and I went for a really great hike up in the hills today. It was so nice to get out and feel the sun!
Tuesday is round two of chemo. The upside (and downside) of skin involvement is you can see it. It looks to me like it's working.....so I must say I'm kind of looking forward to chemo. That's fucked up!
Woow! What a roller coaster! So glad that the bruise was JUST a sign of incompetence of the medical staff. Great to hear that you, Keith and Red headed for the hills and got some sun and fresh air.
ReplyDeleteIt's HATS for a while but that's FANTASTIC that you can see results so fast. Go chemo!
We'll be thinking of you this Tues and the rest of the week as you go through round 2!
lots of love, Ellen
Geeez, it is always something. Glad to hear that this 'something' turned out to be nothing!
ReplyDeleteThat's great that your sense is (Eileen, with her oncologist hat on!! ha ha!) that the first round of chemo was effective. Here's hoping that round two finishes off the job nicely.
I am thinking of you today! I hope that the infusion goes well and the side effects are relatively tolerable.
Take care.
Love, Jane