2002 Story Set
| May 19, 2002 Day 31 Thursday May 16, 2002 7:20 AM Chemo Day I am up, still have a clearing out of the bowels underway. I was up and down most of the night. Groggy. Took more Imodium. Can't be much more! Need to get kid up. He had insomnia as bad as me - from sleeping until noon! Mine was the cramping and runs to the bathroom. Gotta be the new horse pill antibiotic! No wonder I wanted candy! When the insides are moving that fast, not enough nutrition is acquired and the body goes hunting. Ugh! Nose running is I am upright. Mouth dry as a bone from mouth-breathing. Read most of another novel. Nothing else to do! Long chemo day today. Taking magazines and another book with me. He brought his G4 laptop. Sodas and water bottles too. 12:00 PM Home. Long chemo next week. This is crossed signals. Echo is next week. Long chemo will end just before season kickoff for Team in Training. That should be fun. He will be blotto! Also need long blood test thing (liver). Should have done it this week. Also crossed signals. Should be monthly and timed to physical. CBC for other weeks. OK. We are sorted. New Rx for Prednezone. Appointments scheduled out through June 13th. Next long blood test June 12th. We delivered a blue glass vase and more fake roses to the Day Hospital anyway. No port access - went into his hand this time. Physical today also. Need a camera for the rolling eyes. Dr. had baby pictures. I want to see the baby! Someone said we should have done a documentary! Duh! I will bring in the presentation CD next week. Want to add a few new photos. Film still in camera. Should also pass out the website address. "Leukemia - Through a Mother's Eyes" stories are online, or at least some of them. Including photos. Fixed kid a Healthy Choice Bowl, terriaki one, some raw carrots and more V8Splash. He gets 4 pills 3 times a day for 5 days then a taper. Put three Omega 3 eggs on to boil. I haven't used the bathroom in four hours, in spite of having a coffee at the hospital (decaf, non-fat, no-whip, 16 oz cappuccino). Sign I am dehydrated. I fixed some Crystal Light and drank a very large glass. Star Wars opens. We have to wait but he is not neutropinic. We just like to avoid crowds. My ears are stuffed like cotton is in them. I strip and get into a nightgown. I am heading to bed ASAP. Take my horse pill at 12:20 PM. Grabbed a See's chocolate. Needed the sugar. Running all day on two slices of whole wheat so far. My son is shivering and feels hot in the head, I bundle him up, fix him tea. Needs watching. Must schedule those other two appointments too. Want my nose to run. Need this stuff out of my head! They are predicting snow next week. It's over 80 degrees right now. Fans are running. Son does not feel well. Can't eat much. Hopefully will take pills without a struggle. I hate when he's difficult! I want the right medication into him at the right time! He is otherwise doing very well. Counts very good. Heart good so far, pending the echo. Legs getting back. He has tight tendons and must seriously exercise them with stretches and more walking. 2:00 PM I was at the last 4 pages of the climatic chapter of my novel, no make up, in a nylon nightgown, and under a quilt. I was nursing my head. I hard a scritch, scritch, scritch on the wall. Having heard my son make the bathroom, I yelled. "NO!" I kept reading. It came again. Annoyed I yelled again, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" Now I was really angry. My sons pride themselves that they can unerringly come in to interrupt my books at the last 4-6 pages. Without fail. I was determined. So was he. OK. I sped-read the last page and stumbled to my feet. I waddled into his room, ears feeling like cotton is stuffed into them and half-yelled, "WHAT?" The kid has the shakes. He is red-faced. He is under his blankets. Fully clothed. House is at 75-80 degrees (especially his room which gets it full sun, no shade. He is really red now. OK. No more fun and games. "I'm calling the doctor." I go for the phone card and the number. I have the Day Hospital number. Close enough. After ping-pongs I get to the doctor. After we take his temperature (39.2) I am told to "Bring him back!" Not immediately doc, I am nearly naked. I tell the kid to get his shoes on, which will be a slow enough process that I can jump into the clothes I had been wearing, slap a bit of basic makeup on my face, and tear out the door. The suitcase was still packed so I added two bottles of water. We are off, back to Stanford, over the Dunbarton bridge in what is now gusting wind. I am going as fast as I can pedal the old van. The parking lot gate is back in operation (it was down this morning). I walk the kid in to the day hospital, they plop him on a bed. They begin to try to access him. We had avoided that this morning. They tried a few times. After a few tries, there is blood on his chest and he is turning beet red from shock, I stop them. "He needs a break." They send for another nurse from 2North to come and do him. Took two tries. A total of seven pokes. Damn! He is running a temp of 101+. They hook up a bolis after drawing a CBC and bacterial test blood samples from him. He is sweating. By the time the bolis has run a bit (at 900 - fast) he wants a warm blanket. I get it and then go downstairs for decaf coffee (plain) and 1/2 turkey sandwich. They actually sell one half sandwich. They run the bolis, we are waiting on the CBC. If he is still not neutropinic, he can go home. Takes two hours for the blood test results (longer for the bacteria to grow). I have finished my book by now, and don't want to start another or read a magazine. I am in a chair not the barcolounger I always head for. I dose, listen to the news and wait. I really want to be in bed. But he is curled up and I can't fit in there with him. At about 7:00 PM, we are DC'd and we wheel him out in a wheelchair. His fever is below 39 degrees. We get home and I run to fetch him 4 pills and a cup of milk. Once more make-up free and in a long tee-shirt and the bare minimum of else, I fry up 4 Baby Bellas (Portobella mushrooms) in olive oil with the two hard boiled eggs, all these things sliced. I add bottle spaghetti sauce. I cook spaghetti. I always either under cook or overcook and it annoys me that I never stand in the kitchen testing, testing, testing. I serve this pasta dish with a little Parmesan cheese on top. Very good! It is now 9:00 PM. We eat the noodles. Something soothing about a mass of pasta. He picks out and leaves the bellos. But he has eaten and I gave him a soda. His head is hot but the rest of him is cool. I am draining and coughing and blowing my nose. Ick. Only way to describe this. Two CSI shows are on but the last one is too tense. I have managed to doze through part of it. Getting ready to give him a GCSF shot. 4 more pills before he goes to sleep. |
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