Back in the hospital again. This time it was my fever that put me in. I'm in Marshfield too. I didn't want to deal with always having to watch the nurses. Its not my job. I know that some cancer things are very unusual for a small hospital, but I know which way things work the best for me, and when I go against the usual protocol, they bring in a bunch of head nurses to tell me why they do it that way. My port and blood transfusions are a good example. I get queasy when I get transfusions and I like to get zofran before them to calm things. They say "that's not how we usually do it" and go into a million and one reasons why their protocol is best. They argued about how to flush my port at the end. I don't use mine as often as people with hickman ports (that need to be cleaned everyday) and I need them to use a higher dose heparin to prevent clots. Plus I hate saline flushes. I taste them and its always awful. I prefer either sterilized water or D5 (a sugar flush). If I don't do things their way, they get all crabby at me and bring in their superiors. I figure since its my body and I'm paying for it (my insurance is), I figure I'd be better off where I can make some of the calls. Being that 8N is strictly a cancer floor, my requests about transfusions and alternate things for flushing aren't unusual at all. Now I've got my suite too. I'm in a total isolation room which has a bathroom with bathtub, computer, VCR, DVD, and a treadmill. I don't know where the treadmill came from and I prolly won't use it, but its nice to know I could if the mood struck me.
Don, the guy I did a lot of puzzles with in the lounge here, came to visit. He's doing fine and sounds like his treatment was a total success. His doctors are happy, he's happy---so I'm happy. There is life after cancer treatment.
I need to get blood this afternoon and hope I get out tommorrow, but I doubt that'll happen. My immune system is pretty much at zero and it has to start coming back up before I can go anywhere.... It doesn't even have to go up all that much, but just show signs of going up. My platelets are pretty low now too, but not low enough for transfusing more in. Hopefully they bottom out before I am scheduled to go. I don't want to hold up my discharge because I need a few hours of platelets. Guhhh.
Well the benadryl (another premed to blood transfusions that DCH put up a fuss about) is definitely kicked in so I'm going to sleep for awhile. zzzzz....