A Cold Homecoming: January10, 2015

I finished the chemotherapy about 5 PM yesterday. The neuro pulled the vas. cath. before he went home for the evening, otherwise I would have had to wait for the one "on-call" neuro to do it when I was ready to leave. I had to wait two hours for the last med (mesna) which coats my kidneys and bladder to prevent bleeding from the chemo. A new IV was started in my hand and the mesna drip began, but stopped flowing. After failing to start two new IV's after blown veins, the nurse finally took my suggestion and pulled the original line back just a little bit . . . and surprise . . . it worked.  In all the process of working with the IV, another nurse came in a silenced, rather reset the IV pump, and it did not pump at the correct rate. Neither the nurse or I noticed this. After 15 minutes, I still had lots of dips left. That's when we fixed it. The mesna infusion which should have taken 15 minutes took 1 hour. It is now 8:30 PM.

I doin't get anxious about going home unless I have a set time. Now I am an hour late. All the paper work has been completed and all we need now is transport to take
us home. He arrives with only a wheel chair. Our new nurse (shift change) looks at him and said, "what do you plan to do with all their stuff?" "I don't know, they told me to just bring a wheelchair." "Why don't you go and get a cart." After a few moments of deer-in-the headlights, he said, "Okay, but it will take a few minutes." The nurse just sighed.

On the way home we stopped at ate. There is a limit to how much hospital food one can eat.

We made it home at 12:15 AM. Kerrell had called and said, "Daddy, I can't get your heat to reset." Yes, to quote Gomer Pyle, "Surprise, Surprise!" Our heat has gone out. The good thing is we have gas logs to keep the chill off. The repair man will be here this morning.

Thanks again for your prayers and support.