A Bug In My Arm

Last week it took them nine IV sticks to get a vein that would work for my chemo. And the vein they got was really tiny so they had to pump everything slowly. This week, they stopped sticking me after 3 tries. So I caved in and finally agreed to get a port in my arm I had already tried to have a PICC line placed but that didn't work and I've had two central lines on separate occasions while in the hospital but both times they had to come out before I left because of the risk of infection since they were only temporary. So, apparently it's about the size of a quarter and it right under my skin in the inside of my upper left arm. They didn't put my under for it, just gave me Versed and Fentanyl, but they couldn't give me very much because my blood pressure was ridiculously low, like 80s/50s. After I got the port I went and got my chemo. It was much quicker, that's for sure - no more searching for veins or burning veins from some meds.

So, today is the day after chemo and I'm feeling good as usual. Tomorrow is usually when the fun kicks in. I'm just staying on top of my meds and all that for now and really hoping for a good week!

We leave for WASHINGTON STATE on MONDAY! Yay vacation. I'm really really excited! I'll write more later!

I'm Huggable Again!

Just a quick update that we are home (we have been for a few days now) and readjusting to non-hospital living. The boys are here with us and Edgar is so happy to see Warner. He goes nuts when Warner gets home from work and Warner just has to look at him and his tail wags. Any time that Warner says "Good Boy" to either dog, Edgar's tail wags uncontrollably. When I say it, I get nothing. This all goes back to when Edgar was a puppy and Ruekie made sure to let him know that I was his and Edgar had to stay away - so he clung to Warner.

So, I no longer have C-Diff, although I'm still dealing with some lingering symptoms, and my white blood cell count is getting higher - it wasn't 100% when I left the hospital but it was definitely higher than it was.

We've had a few visitors the past two days. Dawn brought the kiddos by yesterday for a few hours and we just hung out on my bed and the floor. The dogs definitely enjoyed all the attention from Micah hugging and petting them and Molly and Mason throwing toys for them. Anne and Andy and their two kiddos came by today for a little bit to say hi and to bring us some awesome gifts that I would show you on here but you'd be jealous and we don't want that. Seriously though, they are pretty awesome.

Anne asked me how much I weigh right now and I didn't know at the time so I decided to hop on the scale to see if I gained or lost in the hospital and I'm up to a whopping 125. Yeah, I'm getting there...slowly.

Chemo on Monday!

Can't Touch This

I am still hanging out in the hospital - getting pumped full of tons of stuff, potassium, antibiotics, iron, and I got blood over the past weekend among other things. I came in for dehydration and ended up with a million this wrong with me. While here, My stomach tubes started hurting really bad and draining really bad around around them so I have them mega-bandaged. On top of that I developed severe diarrhea, and I mean severe. And on top of ALL of that my white blood cell count bottomed out. So, they began running a million tests and running scans. They thought there might be an abscess in my stomach but a CT scan ruled that out and just showed some colitis and inflammation, which was possibly causing some of the tube pain. Then they found out I have Cdiff so I was put in contact isolation - no one can touch me without wearing gloves because I am super contagious. I think I freaked Warner out last night because when he came in I was asleep and he didn't know about the cdiff yet, so he tried to kiss me, and I woke up real fast and yelled " Don't Touch Me!" He jumped back and gave me a crazy look so I had to explain it all to him. I'm on antibiotics for everything as well, so hopefully I'll be better soon.

So, I have colitis, inflammation, CDiff, and I'm neutropenic...WOOHOO!