…because pizza and .9% sodium chloride doesn’t have the same ring as pizza and beer
My brother Jonathan sent me a picture of my diploma for my masters degree that arrived yesterday. It’s still weird to me that I had my graduation ceremony just over 5 weeks ago and things did not pan out the way that I expected them to go. I feel absolutely zero regrets going through that 3 year part time program because not only did I earn the respect of my co workers for watching me drag myself to class twice a week, attend study sessions on weekends, and complain about doing homework every night after work, but I gained a group of very close and supportive friends (The Crushers) from both the program and my new job. Getting through this cancer treatment wouldn’t be the same without them.
My 2nd night here was tough. I woke up covered in sweat at 2:30, changed my clothes, and woke up again at 4:30 again covered in sweat to the point where Aren had to come in to change my bedsheets. Literally every time I close my eyes to sleep, I’ll wake up needing to change my clothes.
I was awake already so he took my vitals and the lab tech came in to get my daily blood samples.
I decided to walk around the 4th floor to get my blood flowing and find the food that Joanna brought and put away. I eventually found it but it was put in the freezer by accident. Can’t do much with whole frozen peaches, or mango so I raided the patient snack pantry.
JACKPOT!
Throughout the day I felt the positive effects of my first chemo treatment. My hunger jumped up, I didn’t get many coughing fits, and my ribs barely hurt at all so I didn’t need to take any pain killers at all during the day. A few people have asked me if it hurts to get chemo. It doesn’t feel any different than getting a regular saline IV drip. Your upper arm just gets a little cold because the liquid is room temp and the chemo bag looks a little ominous because it’s brown to prevent light shining through.
When room service opened at 7 I jumped at the occasion and ordered eggs, blue berry pancakes, fresh fruit, milk, hash browns, and sausage links. I completely wiped it out. During my breakfast, the Nurse Practitioner, Jean came in to check on me with an undergrad student visiting from Virginia who interested in medicine. She must have been very smart to be invited here to shadow. It was a nice little visit being a case study and giving a short story on how I got here.
One of the female nurses came in and told me that the lab was wondering if I wanted to try again and provide another “sample”. Upon hearing that, my lower extremities shrunk into my body a little bit after yesterday’s beating. I declined and made eye contact with Aren as he’s the only male nurse here that would understand my pain.
Nurse Kristy asked me about my blog and wanted the address so she could check it out. A few hours later she said that all 3 nurse pods on the floor were passing around the post it note that I wrote the URL on and last night every computer was on a different blog post. She said that not every day a cancer patient that they’re treating is so open to sharing their story. Hearing how captivating my writing has been has such a big pick me up.
I’ve told a few people this but I put a lot of thought and energy into writing these posts. It’s a helpful exercise for me to get in tune with my surroundings and what’s going on with myself internally. It really means a lot that people are willing to spend a few minutes of their day to find out about mine. So thank you because I never intended this to be a big deal.
My classmate from 2nd to 12th grade…for the sake of privacy let’s call her Lisa R…No that’s too obvious, let’s say L. Rossini came to visit during her lunch break. She actually lives here in Roch with her family and both her and her husband work in the Mayo clinic, probably along with 90% of the residents that live in this city.
My good friend Mike and his family also gave me a surprise visit too against my strict orders on my blog not to…guess I know who’s not reading my blog lol
The visits were nice as they helped speed the day up.
Every day the nurses are supposed to give me a shot of blood thinner in my abdomen, it fricken burns going in and aches the rest of the day. They said if I can promise to walk about 45 min minimum throughout the day, they won’t do it. Dad took me on a walk throughout the building around 3 today and I brought a bottle of water with me. Remember yesterday when I said that water tastes like sour metal? It instantly changed when I cracked open a new bottle and tasted like sugar water! Chemo changes how all your cells are produced in your body, food is going to taste different from now on. I gladly welcomed this one.
Nurse Jean asked if I’d be interested in slowly bumping up my chemo schedule so they could dismiss me on Sunday night instead of Monday morning. I thought it was a pretty good idea as I’m sure the insurance company would be too. I believe my upcoming chemo schedule will be Thursday, Thursday, end first cycle, and Wednesday – Sunday to start the next one.
I ordered pizza and got started on my next treatment of chemo at about 6pm. It’s about 10pm now and I have another 2 hours to go. These are basically my nights for the next 3 more days. Being hooked up to bags of drugs, peeing several times every hour, and sweating like crazy.
The nurses have all told me that they like my leaderboard.
Today was a good day 🙂
Andrew—
I’m a friend of Beth in Birmingham, Alabama. We taught together for a few years. I’ve been following your blog since she told me about you. I look forward to your updates and new posts every day. I really appreciate your sense of humor! I appreciate you sharing your experience online! I’llbe praying for you!
Heyy, Andrew! I’m a friend of Beth Howell’s. I use to babysit her boys when I was a teenager. I’m also , a20 year heart transplant survivor. My mother is equally a breast cancer survivor. God is still in the miracle business and I am praying for you daily. I enjoy your blog. Thanks for being so open asi believe in prayer and praying specifically. God bless!