Opening Night Jitters

Mark and I got me checked in yesterday at Emory University Hospital, or as it’s been nicknamed the Winship Inn and Suites. We got there at 9:15ish. We were led back to a room where I was instructed to take off my shirt and put on a gown. I was still sort of loopy because I had gotten up so early, so I lay back on the bed and Mark tried to make himself comfortable in a high back chair.

She’Maia came in to insert the IV. She’Maia was unsuccessful. She went to get the charge nurse. The charge nurse tried to find a vein twice with a needle and SHE gave up- telling me that Judy the ultrasound nurse was going to look for veins with a machine. Judy applied the cold ultrasound jelly and found a vein around my right elbow. She proceeded to stick the needle in and maybe I tensed up? Because on attempt number FOUR she was unsuccessful. She sort of blamed it on me. As you might imagine, getting stuck like a pincushion did wonders for my stress and anxiety level. Finally on attempt number FIVE, Judy was successful. By this point I have bandages on both hands and three additional Band-Aids on.

After what felt like an interminable wait, I was finally wheeled back into a freezing little procedure room. Early early hip hop, like Heavy D and LL Cool J blasted on a speaker, which calmed me down a little bit. Then the fentanyl and versed that the nurse Kimberly gave me calmed me down even more. The guys got me all covered in drapes and swabbed down with more freezing cold liquid. The doc (Mark says interventional radiologist sounds better) came in and quickly inserted the central line so I don’t have to keep getting a bunch of needles stuck in me. There were about five seconds of pain, but then it was over and the techs bandaged me up. The central line insertion was quick and almost painless and not nearly as scary as I had envisioned.

I was wheeled back into the room to come down from the fenty/versed cocktail. There was another waiting period that felt like forever and then I was wheeled from the main hospital to the Tower where I’ll be for four weeks. We finally got up to the room around 3:00 pm.

I’m going to be in the hospital for at least four weeks.

My room isn’t horrible. I have a spectacular view looking out over Emory with the Midtown skyline on the horizon line. The room has a bed, a couch, a LayZBoy chair, another chair and a rolling table that functions as a desk, dining table, medication prep table. The table raises and lowers and the top slides over to increase the flat surface. real estate. Dr. Kauffman and Dr. Muniz came in to introduce themselves and left me in the capable hands of nurse Mary and nursing student Mary. Everyone was friendly and nice, especially the Marys. The Marys came in periodically to ask questions, take my blood pressure, etc. and Dr. Muniz spent a good amount of time talking with Mark and me-about the timeline and the process. It was one of those situations where at the end of our conversation he asked if I had questions and I had taken in so much information that I was too overwhelmed to ask any. Drinking from a firehose.

The sun set and the night nurse Duran came on. Again, a super nice guy. Mark hung out with me until 8:30 because Duran told me that my first round of chemo wouldn’t be administered until 10:30 pm. A tech stopped by to instruct me on some wipes I have to use daily to reduce infection. One wipe for one arm, another wipe for the second arm, one for the left leg, one for the right leg, one for the torso and one for the back. The swabs were warm at least, and the tech, Jackie swabbed my back for me. I had thought it was going to be an imposition, but it turned out to be nothing.

Duran came in around 9:30 pm and gave me a couple of pre-chemo drugs. Everything went into the central line and I didn’t feel a thing.

Duran then came in and spent fifteen minutes getting the chemo set up. He put on a gown and gloves before touching the chemo bag. The cocktail I’m getting is called fludarabine. The bag was small like a juice box. He finally turned the machine on and I was off. It was sort of anticlimactic. The chemo took thirty minutes, there was another line flushing that took around fifteen minutes. I have three more days of this regimen and then the final day I get the scary one that’s I think has all the side effects.

Today I feel fine, I have an appetite, I get to go outside for the first couple of days and Mark is here with me today. After the initial trauma my first day went well. One down and hopefully only thirty more to go.