Thursday, October 25, 2007

Hospital Day One

I've been here for about 3.5 hours now. It's noon-thirty. Poking, prodding, talking, cleaning, teaching, etc. has been this morning's regimen.

Fun stuff. They measure all my inputs and outputs. This means I have to save all my output, and I'm not talking about printed pages of spreadsheet data!

Right now they're infusing 240ml/hr of a wonderful little beverage made up of Dextrose, Sodium Bicarbonate, and Potassium Chloride. I think it's a 2007 vintage.

So let's think about this. 1060 ml of fluids injected directly into my bloodstream over a roughly 4 hour period. I think I'm gonna need to pee. I also think I'll swell up like your great grandmother's ankles!

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OK, it's just a bit after 2pm. The doctor just left. No news, no changes, no alterations. I ordered lunch. Ed just called to check on me. I told him to go back to work.

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Three PM. The nurses have been in the room prepping for my "Secret Sauce" chemo. I have a second line attached to my Hickman and they're infusing basic saline. They'll attach the magic Secret Sauce as soon as it arrives. (Secret Sauce has a life of only one hour, so they have to be ready.)

Funny, I just remembered that the doc said something to the effect of: "If you feel good tomorrow, we may let you go. If you don't feel good tomorrow, you could be here for 5 days."

Waiting for another damned shoe to drop.

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5:15p - The poison has been administered and I feel fine so far. No allergic reaction. I'm swelling a bit, but it's not bad.

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11 pm on day one. Nothing odd is happening. Peeing a lot (which is required) and not experiencing much in the way of effects. Going to sleep soon.

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It's 8:15 am, which makes it the then of the first 24 hour period here in UW Hospital. Lots of fluids overnight, lots of peeing, no particular side effects except for a little bit of fluid retention. Peripheral neuropathy / leg pain / bone pain kept me up a lot last night. Sleepy as hell. Gonna eat brekkies soon.

End of Day One.

1 comment:

Broom said...

so far so good! we're all thinkin' of you here in texas, andre.