I have been pretty quiet on here late. I have a few housekeeping issues.

Lunch With Anne

First thank you to Anne for taking me to lunch on her trip through town on November 21. It was excellent company and good food. We went here www.avantifood.com. We had a antipasta platter, and bread and olive platter and then yummy pastas.

And a real huge thank you to Scott for the beautiful flowers. But a hint, next time you buy flowers for a woman other than your wife, you should buy her some too (especially when you need her to deliver them for you) LOL

Treatment from Hell and Nurse Cratchett

Yesterday I had what was probably my worst treatment to date. It wasn’t that the drugs caused a reaction or that I was sick, it was the incompetent nurse. When we first went in, the first nurse introduced herself and said she was just back from her 10 month maternity leave. As she prepared the trays, I explained that my port was difficult to access and that I would prefer one of the nurses who has actually accessed it before to do it. She said none of them where available and processed to miss it by about an inch. She called Nurse Cratchett, the nurse she was shadowing, one who screwed it up before. She then to a poke at it, missed and claimed it was because she was pretty sure it was flipped and upside down that she missed. Then another nurse took a try and missed before they decided they had to do something else. Cratchett called for Dr. Zalewski and asked that I be sent to radiology to have an x-ray done to see if had flipped over. Cratchett then suggested that it couldn’t be accessed because I was sleeping on it wrong (huh, like can you explain that to me).

They called x-ray and they made an appointment there for me. After lots of confusion and waiting we made it down to radiation and waited some more. The doctor there assured me that it was not flipped or twisted and that there was nothing I was doing it to cause it to turn. He was able to access it, but it did take him 3 tries. In fact he actually bent 2 needles. He had to give me a freezing because it was so sore, since the Emla cream had worn some 90 minutes earlier. I guess my balling my eyes out was causing his some trouble too, along with my moans and screams.

He said that he knows why they were having trouble, that the port had to be held very tightly and accessed, and if you let it go, to say pick up the needle, it would move and you would have to start it again. He suggested that I request only the 3 nurses that had found it before be allowed to do it, and if he was available he would be willing to do it. He also assured me that it was nothing I was doing wrong, like sleeping the wrong way.

The rest of the treatment was uneventful, but it made for miserable day. In addition, now a procedure that was supposed to last 4 hours again stretched to 7 hours. Added with the fact that I was going out at 6:30 pm and still had to put a salad together for the evening, every minute that ticked by just pissed me off more. I was in such a foul mood that Irene, one of the nurses who accessed the port first try asked me what was wrong when she saw me on one of my trips to the bathroom. Oh, apparently she was there when I first asked in the morning.

Blood Numbers

LKC (white) Dec 5 - 6.8 Nov 13 - 4.8 Oct. 23 -5.7 October 2-6.0 Sept 11-5.5
ERC (red) Dec 5 -4.04Nov 13 - 3.92 Oct. 23-4.44 October 2-4.51 Sept 11-4.60
HB (hemoglobin) Dec 5 - 113 Nov 13 - 110 Oct. 23-123 October 2-123 Sept 11-128
PLT (platelets)Dec 5 - 333 Nov 13 -326 Oct. 23-320 October 2-259 Sept 11-272
Neut# Dec 5 - .75 Nov 13 -.73 Oct. 23-3.9 October 2-4.4 Sept 11-3.6

The Block Christmas party was great, and I bought home a gorgeous Christmas platter.

Hardwood Flooring and Gas Leaks

Saturday, Kyle, Mandy and headed over to Rona for a seminar on hardwood flooring. First, there was no one around, and then they paged someone how was going to collect us and take us to the seminar area. Like put up a sign people, don’t keep us guessing. While wondering around looking for the seminar area, I spotted to Rona employees looking up at the ceiling, discussing where the shutoff value was. I did not see anything dripping, and continued on my way. A few minutes later, they started evacuating the store, as they had a gas leak. We waited around for about 40 minutes, watched a fire truck and 4 police cruisers attend and then decide we would try our luck at Sunday’s seminar – hell maybe they will even now where it is going to take place.

On top of everything else on Fridady, we have Mandy's surgery coming up on Thursday, and that for me, is making me even more weepy.

~Inez