Is it really halfway through the month of January already? Where does the time go? One of my "resolutions" was to blog more. We can see how well I have been keeping with my resolutions!
2012 has certainly been interesting so far. I started off with a blood transfusion on the 4th. This, in itself, was pretty unexciting. It is just like having chemotherapy except that instead of drugs, I was getting pure juicy red blood cells. Two pints to be exact. I had this done at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD and Holy Cross Moly did I get spoiled there. (Thank goodness because this endeavor took 5 hours). Really comfy chairs, my own TV (with like 30 stations), a personal heating/cooling system AND they brought us all free lunches! Suh-weet!!
In my naivity (and hopefulness), I had expected the blood transfusion to turn me into Wonder Woman. I had gotten it into my head that the addition of packed red blood cells would thrust me into a whole new level of energy and vitality. With my mother-in-law arriving 3 days post-transfusion, I hoped to clean the entire house, fix all the broken window treatments and towel racks (we seem to have a "wall" problem in our house), organize the garage, build bookshelves for our still-unpacked books, plant a garden, run a marathon, complete the Tour de France, deliver food to the hungry, and leap tall buildings in a single bound. Yeah. Notsomuch. I felt better. I think. But, mostly just normal.
The next day, I had my port "installation". This was fun. Not. I had thought my procedure was at 10am, so we arrived at 8:30am (standard arrival time for a 10am procedure). Turns out that the procedure was actually scheduled for 11am. And then, at 11am, there was a trauma emergency that took my place and ended up pushing my "installation" back until 2pm. Mind you, saving someone's life is more important than installing my port, but this was a fasting surgery, which means I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. I was bored, uncomfortable, whiney and we all know how cranky this girl gets when she is hungry. It wasn't pretty, people. It wasn't pretty. Anyway...the installation went well, if you are into having your jugular pierced and a having a piece of plastic shoved under your skin while your face is covered in napkins and you are salivating over the thought of eating just about anything presented to you. But, it was over lickety split and I was soon back in recovery having my sandwich and soda and ready to move on.
The next day was chemotherapy. While it was really not fun having the port accessed a day after the install, chemotherapy was definitely more tolerable with the port (as compared to having to sit with my arm completely still for hours at a time). I think I was still there for the same amount of time (people keep asking me if it went faster), but I was able to more freely move about and that totally rocked.
Ten days later, my port still hurts. Not a lot, but enough to annoy the heck out of me. Hopefully, with a break in chemo this week, it will get a chance to finish healing and I won't feel like such an alien.
Anywho...that's all I've got for now. Time to go enjoy my family. Happy MLK Jr. Day, folks!
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.~Martin Luther King, Jr.
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