June 23 (Tuesday) ... I had a thought while drifting off to sleep last night. I feel like I am part of Bible story you all my find familiar...David and Goliath.
Now I am sure that this analogy has even been used for a person battling with cancer, but I am going to put my little spin on it compared to my life and experience. So get ready over the next few days as I flesh it out in my head and get it written down in my blog posts.
For now, I will just say today was rough. Not because of the chemo treatment. Those are going well and I know that the first round side effects may come later or not come at all. I know that I might see the side effects more as i have more rounds. But this blog is about what I am going through at the moment, not what could happen to me down the road.
So what made this day a challenge was what happened before and after the chemo treatment. So I will start back at the beginning. I started out my morning getting ready with a shower. No big deal until what i thought was a small hair ball sprouted legs and raised his ugly stinger at me. I told the dratted whatever to stay on his side of the shower and i would stay on mine. I took a quick shower and got out yelling for my entomologist son to get himself in there and kill that insect. He of course wanted to identify it first, and after proclaiming it was not an insect but a common house centipede I told him to kill it. I had no need to make it common in my house!!!
Then I sat down to place an order for essential oils. They had just had a convention and lots of good deals I did not want to miss with “out of stock” messages. So I started filling my cart and that is exactly what happened. And then it froze up on me. So I finagled the site enough to get what i had ordered and tried to live chat with a representative to see if there was a way to pick up two other items that i really wanted to try. After the chat I was no further ahead but 15 minutes late for my departure time.
My mom and i got on the road and immediately the skies opened wide and the rain was so hard we could not see the road ahead of us. We took it slow, missed a turn, got back on track, and made it to the center right on time. For those of you who know my mom and I, that means we were LATE! Don’t panic just get in and get things started. Take a deep breath.
The time for my mom’s parking lot sitting began at 9am. The temperature was a cool 80° with high humidity. I think my mom’s day was harder than mine. You will see what i mean as the day goes on. So while I was sitting in an air conditioned center having chemo, my counselor from previous day showed up to talk to me. I appreciate the prayers for her from my prayer warriors because she had a better attitude and even apologized to me from previous day. She then told me that I had some more tests for the day so that is why she came to see me.
Dr. Drengler had looked over my scans again and saw a blip on my thyroid glands. He is not taking any more chances and wants me to have an ultrasound done for comparison. They set up an appointment to follow my day’s chemo. No big deal because it was just downstairs. It should have been an easy exam but I got a snippy tech and I was very uncomfortable. I am also wired and hypersensitive due to steroids. I was glad to have that behind me.
He had also mentioned at an early consult that when all the treatments were complete I might consider genetic testing done. Now he is telling me that genetic testing is very important and they are going to draw blood to have this done today. Still not a big deal because at the end of chemo it was a simple draw of two vials of blood. I just think I have become his next medical journal entry. I have thought this before and I find it kind of interesting that i am unique enough case to have it down on paper outside of a patient file. Or maybe it is nothing. Time will tell.
So we got through chemo. Blood drawn for genetic testing. Ultrasound done. My mom has now been at her parking space for almost four hours. Afraid to leave and go anywhere because parking is limited. She just read her book. We need to set her up with her own travel bag of snacks and drinks and time wasting material.
We went for lunch. Again in the car because going inside a restaurant is out of the question with this dang Covid-19. Then we needed to find a place to go to the bathroom that was safe so we decided to go to my next appointment site. Yay! It was a big enough place with parking and open enough inside to sneak past the guard dog temperature checking employees.
Back out to the car for thirty minutes before I go in for my scans. Now the temperature is in the 90s and humidity is bubbling over. But i have an appointment and all should go quickly. We will be home before we know it. Right?
I go in with plenty of time to check in before my appointment. I sat down and watched patient after patient check in and go straight back and then leave. But I sit in the waiting area for an hour past my appointment. I finally go up and ask if i had been forgotten. A man in a suit told me that i needed to be patient and wait my turn. I gave a smart remark being on steroids gave me an attitude. It got me no where. OK. I sat down and my name was the next to be called. Alright we are getting somewhere!
I got a CT scan done on the bone of my right femur. Dr. Drengler is concerned that if this bone is weak I could have a break and spread the cancer beyond the bone. Then I was sent around to the MRI unit to be told that I had an hour wait. Why did I even have an appointment? I would not be taken into the MRI until after 4pm. Almost two hours after my appointment. I was dehydrated from chemo. I was tired. But more than anything, i was concerned for my mother who would now be in a car for at least 8 hours!!
So I finally got my turn at the MRI. This one was to check the skull lesion. So just my head needed to go in. Nope! He laid me flat on my back. Put ear plugs in my ears. Put my head in a cage. Stuffed the cage with padding. And then the tube from hell that kept getting tighter and tighter the further i went in. I could not do it!!!! Get me out now!!!! He pulled me out and ask what the problem was. I told him I was so dehydrated that I could not breathe. I needed a glass of water and i would try again. He said he would take another patient ahead of me. I told him no! I was so afraid if I left that room I would just walk out. It had to happen!
So he let me drink my water. He put me back in the head cage but did not put the padding around my head. Did he forget? Did he show some mercy? I don’t know but it was enough. I just prayed a Hail Mary over and over again for an hour. I must of prayed it hundreds of times. I got through the MRI. I left that building so fast!
We got home at 5:30 pm. My mom and I were just numb from exhaustion. We did not even eat dinner until close to 7:30pm. We were blessed with a meal from our friend Brenda Mark.
Then we had our family prayer time and i fell asleep. Missed my night dose of pain meds. I had already missed the earlier dose too. I didn’t care. I was so tired. But i woke up this morning and was glad to get that routine back on track.
Praise God for what we were able to accomplish. Praise God for your prayers!
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