Thursday, February 8, 2007

TREATMENT DAY-A DAY IN THE LIFE.

I thought I would keep a more detailed journal of our trip to John's Hopkins. They do a great job there and the facilities are wonderful. It's just a long day. After reading this you'll know why I'm a little jumpy some days. I've also included some cell phone pictures as well.

7:00am Chris awakens and goes down with the dog and makes lunches for the boys.
7:15am Charlie and the boys get up.
7:40am Charlie packs up the car with snowboarding equipment for the boys and neighbors as tonight is also Ski Club night. Everything is packed the night before using a che
ck list on the fridge.
8:00am Charlie and the boys leave for middle school.
8:20am Arrive middle school, open back of the car and hear Michael say "hay where's my boots?" Immediately followed by Charlie's response "I don't know, they're not MY boots"
8:22am After looking through everything in the car we take everything in the school to the storage area. Tell Michael good luck with the snowboarding as I have no intention of coming back to the schoold as we need to leave by 9:30 to get Chris to Hopkins for treatment.
8:30am Stop at Starbucks for coffee and calm nerves.
8
:35am Call Chris - No answer (in shower)
8:40am Drop off package at post office.
8:45am Call Chris - Tell her the dilema. Tell her my feelings about it. She feels otherwise.
9:00am Arrive home. See Boots sitting in the middle of the garage stairs!!!!!! Packup for hospital.
9:15am Leave for School (again)!!!!
9:30am Arrive at school, wait for Chris to take boots in. Secretary calls Michael out of class. He's relieved it's not me and that it's mom holding the boots!
9:40am Leave for Hopkins
9:45am Stop at Starbucks (again).
9:55am Back on the highway to Hopkins.
10:45am Drop Chris off at the main entrance to Hopkins. I go and park the car in the bowels of the parking garage.
11:00am Come up to the waiting room and find 2 seats together. Chris is in a room getting her port accessed and having blood drawn for analysis.
12:00pm Nurse tells us she's looking for the lab results.
12:40pm Nurse tells us labs are good, waiting for final results whatever that means. Translation = "gotta eat lunch first before you come back"
1:29pm "Come on down, you're the next contestent...." We're in and they order the chemo.
1:30pm Go to the treatment area and select a comfy location in a daybed by the window. Chris sleeps for a whileafter the Demerol and Benadryl kicks in. I look attentive!
1:4
0pm Pre-meds start flowing.
1:55pm Chris dozes off, Charlie starts working on today's journal.
2:10pm Chemo arrives.
2:11pm Nurse realizes the IV tubing is clear and not the required orange color for chemo. Replaces all the tubing!
2:20pm Chemo (taxol) starts to flow. 3 hours to go for this one.
2:30pm Chris dozes off
2:32pm Charlie trys to sneak out for awhile. Kicks bed wakes up Chris! Doh!!! Sits back down.
2:35pm Chris eats her bagged lunch she brought. Charlie watches hungrely!
2:39pm Chris reads her book and snacks on an apple.
2:40pm Charlie leaves in search of food that satisfies his Adkins Diet! Been doing really well so far but really miss things like, bread, pasta, sugar. My primary food groups!!!! Maybe there's a butcher on the corner and I can get some raw MEAT!
3:00pm Love that Chicken at Popeyes!!!!! Only 3 to 5 carbs per piece! There is a Popeyes around the corner from the hospital. I went for a brief walk and saw it and ran over. I picked off the yummy coating and only ate the chicken..... NOT!
3:15pm Called my Mom in Indiana,she was happy to hear from me.
3:30pm Found an internet terminal in the hospital and checked my email accounts. All is well there.
3:45pm Called our neighbor Ray to ask if he would let Chloe out for awhile. He was just getting out of the car and walked right over. I could hear the dog jumping and peeing all over the place!!! She loves Ray. Ray said he would pick up the boys from ski club tonight too. Can't begin to tell everyone how much the little things help us out the most! Thanks Ray.
4:00pm Came back to find Chrissy sleeping soundly. Sat for awhile and read my magazines. Checked the Taxol bag. Still looks about 1/3 full. When that is done there is another bag of chemo (different stuff called carboplatin) that gets put in as well. It's going to be a long day.
4:15pm Went out to the lobby for a walk Chris still snoozing.
5:00pm Came back in to see Chris awake and reading her book. Taxol has about 30 mins left... Then comes the carboplatin.
5:15pm One of the many visits by the oncology nurse. Double checks to make sure that Chris has all of her drugs needed for the coming few days. Let's see... anti-nausea pills, anzamet (1 per day for 3 days), decadron (steroid with each anzamet pill), and a lovely shot of delivered to the house by the UPS guy!!! It's a syringe that needs to be kept cold. The insurance company sends it to us and that way we don't have to go back to Baltimore the next day for it. I then get to give it to her! Scary thought I know. 1 small little vial is about $3,000. And here I am trying to read the directions on how to get the stupid cap off it!!!
5:30pm Finally started the carboplatin! About 45 mins left. Chris is reading, I'm reading or typing or watching the drips fall...
6:05pm Finally the carboplatin stops dripping. I pack up and go down to the bowels again to get the car and pick up Chris out front.
6:15pm On the road again....
6:45pm Traffic jam getting out of Baltimore City! Take right turn and start driving north around the problem. Thank goodness for the navigation system.
7:30pm Finally arrive home and immediately take the dog out.
7:45pm Make dinner.
8:15pm Eat dinner
8:30pm Finally sit and watch the news and relax for awhile.
9:00pm Chris does some laundry and I go downstairs to catch up on some emails.
10:00pm Back upstairs and Chris is nodding off in the chair.
10:30pm Convince Chris to go upstairs to be.
10:45pm Boys arrive home.
11:00pm Boys go to bed and Charlie sits back down to watch the news.
11:30pm Back downstairs to work on some things and this daily log.
12:15am Back on the couch to watch some TV.
12:45am (Guess) Charlie dozes off on the couch.
2:30am Finally get up and go to bed....

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