For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Friday, July 22, 2011

Hospital Admission

Friday morning, I made a store list, and Juanita and I headed out to run errands. We headed to Walmart for one stop shopping. I dropped off my prescriptions while thinking that they're going to know I have cancer because I'm getting a chemo drug. While waiting for the prescriptions to be filled, we shopped for groceries. While walking through the clothing section, I saw a blouse I liked, but I put it back on the rack. I didn't want to spend any extra money since I wasn't sure of what would lie ahead financially.  Over my objections, Juanita picked it up and put it in the cart to buy for me.

We headed back to the pharmacy. Juanita told me to go sit on the bench and she would stand in line. I thought it was silly, but I went and sat down. When she got to the front of the line, I joined her since I was using my debit card to pay. I was surprised and relieved that the bill was less than $50 for all 3 prescriptions. Then we went over to the regular check out lines to pay for our groceries. Again, Juanita told me to go sit down until she got to the front of the line. I told her I'm not an invalid, but she insisted, so I went to sit.

When we left Walmart, I told her to turn right if she wanted to see where the Cancer Center is. At that, she exclaimed that we forgot to buy snacks and fruit for the staff.  She pulled into the Shell station to get gas, and when she went in to pay, I thought she was in there for a long time. She came out with a bag of snacks and fruit.  She explained that nurses remember who brings food for them and they will make sure you are well taken care of. :-).  When we arrived, the nurse manager was sitting at the reception desk, so Juanita was able to talk to her.  My sister said she knows what she's talking about and she's no bimbo.  Now Juanita would know I was in good hands when she left. :-)  I think she knew that anyway; she was very impressed with how fast I got in to see an oncologist and that he took the bone marrow biopsy at my first appointment.

When we got home, I took my first dose of chemo, then we made a late lunch. By then, I was surprised at how tired I was, and I just laid around for the rest of the day.

Rebekah wanted to find the book Twice Upon a Marigold for her friend Alex's birthday.  We hadn't found the book at Walmart and Target, so she wanted to go to Barnes & Noble. Juanita said she'd take her on Saturday. I wasn't sure that Rebekah could find the mall, so I wanted to ride along. I was really tired on Saturday, so Juanita suggested I take a nap then go along if I felt better. But it was getting later and I thought that if we were going to go, we should just go. So Juanita, Rebekah, Katie and I piled in Juanita's car and headed to the mall. She dropped me off at the B&N door, which I thought was a  little silly because I was capable of walking across the parking lot! But inside B&N, I started getting tired pretty quickly. I found a place to sit while the kids and Juanita looked for books. We didn't stay long, but I was surprised at how exhausted I felt. We headed to the car and I said I'd walk instead of waiting for Juanita to bring the car to the door. In the parking lot, we ran into my friend Angie and her girls. We hugged and talked about how shocking it was that I have leukemia. Angie said, "So I guess you won't be in church tomorrow," to which I responded, "Yeah, I'll be there." Silly me.

We headed home and Juanita started supper. I laid on the couch and Katie sat beside me looking concerned and rubbing my shoulders. When supper was ready, I said I'd come to the table, but I couldn't muster the energy to get up.  I said I'd be over in a little bit and they should go ahead and start without me. Then I decided I wasn't hungry anyway and I'd just stay on the couch. Juanita wanted me to eat something, so I said they could bring me half an ear of corn. I sat up on the couch to eat it, then laid down again. By this time, I was freezing and someone brought me a blanket. Roger thought I felt warm and went looking for a thermometer. He couldn't find one, so he and Randy drove to Walmart to buy one. They finally returned and I had a temp of 102.2.  They called my oncologist and he said we should go to the ER in case I had an infection.

I packed a bag in case I got admitted. Totally weird for me, I didn't bring a book because I didn't feel up to reading. The scrambling around to pack a bag kind of jolted me into having more energy (the tylenol probably helped too), and I started thinking that it was probably silly for us to go to the ER. The triage nurse was a cancer survivor who obviously had a passion for encouraging and educating cancer/chemo patients, so we were in triage for a long time. Afterward, they told me I could stay in the triage waiting area so I wouldn't be exposed to so many other people.

In the ER, they took a lot of blood, chest x-rays, and started an IV. The funniest moment was when the ER doctor palpated my abdomen and said, "That's a big spleen you've got there."  When my bloodwork came back, they spoke to my oncologist and he told them to admit me for 2 units of blood because my hemoglobin was down to 6.5. Kind of explains why I had no energy!  The ER nurse thought my wbc was 240 (two hundred forty, no thousands) and she came rushing in with a mask for me to wear. We all told her that it was 240 thousand, not 240, but she didn't believe us. My sister is an ER nurse and asked to see the report. They pulled it up on the computer and my sister showed her where it said 240, normal 5-10, measured in thousands, but she still didn't believe it was 240,000 until she walked down to the lab and talked to a tech. While she was gone, I said she was probably confused because she'd never seen a wbc count that high.  When she came back, she said the highest wbc count she'd seen was 90-something thousand, and that person was so sick, she didn't realize it could go as high as mine.

When I was being wheeled to my room, I was watching the signs and realized that I was being taken to the cancer center. Inside, I was thinking that I don't want to go there because that's where really sick people are. I didn't want to think of myself as a cancer patient.

In my room, I moved from the gurney to my bed. I was very cold, so a nurse brought me a warm blanket. There was a flurry of activity as my nurse checked my history, meds, and vitals. My temp was below normal, but Juanita suspected that I was going to spike another fever. Sure enough, my temp went up to 101. My nurse brought me benadryl (for the blood transfusion) and tylenol. A few minutes later, I got nauseous and Juanita found a basin in case I got sick. Then I started throwing up. My nurse gave me a shot of compazine in my IV, then gave me more tylenol and I managed to keep it down. They had to wait for my temp to drop below 100 before starting the transfusion, so they checked my temp often until it got below 100. Every time I started to drift off, someone came in to take more blood, check my vitals, or ask me how many times I used the bathroom, so I never did fall asleep. I wondered if this was going to be my life with leukemia - sick all the time, in and out of the hospital. I finally fell asleep about 7 am, only to be awoken at 8:20 by my oncologist.

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