Friday, January 24, 2020
Thursdays are blood draw day for me. Every Thursday until July 2nd I will be stuck with a needle, so blood is available to monitor a bunch of levels of blood cells and nutrients. Three Thursdays in a row I put numbing cream on my chest so the nurse can insert a large needle into my implanted blood port to draw blood. Accessing my port is the most efficient blood-draw method; I have only had difficulties twice with the nurses getting blood that way and both times we got it, it simply took a while.
The fourth Thursday I get my blood drawn at the lab in the building where my wound care doctor is located. When I finish my wound care appointment, I roll down to the lab for a needle stick in my hand. The lab does not have a nurse on hand to access my port, but I do not feel the pinky sides of either hand, so I ask the phlebotomist to stick me on the back of my hand. Because I am cold so much, it is not easy to get blood and sometimes I get stuck as many as three times. I do not mind because I do not feel any of the sticks and I save an extra trip to the hospital.
Yesterday, my blood draw was at the hospital and it went well. When I have my blood draw at the hospital on Thursday and have chemotherapy on Friday, I have the nurse leave my port accessed so I do not have to be stuck again before chemotherapy. That simply means the needle stays in my chest and an occlusive dressing is placed over it to prevent infection overnight. Yesterday I was not sweating much so my dressing was still stuck this morning much better than last week.
I came home for about 40 minutes after my blood draw to warm up and then went to my seven-year-old’s, Mika, school to have lunch. I cannot believe I am saying this, but the lunch was not bad. It was pot roast turkey. I am going to guess it was the equivalent of throwing a turkey in a slow cooker and it was pretty good. I am ready to debone a turkey and throw it in a slow cooker. The turkey was moist and flavorful, unlike the baked turkeys on Thanksgiving or other holidays. The turkey was served with mashed potatoes and gravy, and I chose a cucumber for my vegetable. It was the first good meal I had at the school this year.
I did not let Mika talk me into watching her reading group after lunch as I usually do because I wanted to get back home, get warmed up again, and start recording more personal message videos for my family. My older daughter works at her massage therapy job on Thursdays and they are required to take a two-hour lunch break to prevent injuries. Since I left the house early and my helper had the day off, my older daughter came home to fill milk glasses for me during her break.
My daughter, of course, hung out here for as long as she could which cut into my video recording time. I like to finish my glass of milk before I record videos so I can put the video camera where I place my milk glass. It was 3:00 p.m. before I was ready to start recording and Mika gets out of school at 3:35 p.m. I needed to get going. I rerecorded the two videos I decided were unusable from December and recorded one more.
The third video was not even very personal. It was a video about the dangers of drinking shots and why you should never do them or get drunk. By the end of my video, all I could think about was something awful happening to Mika because she made a bad decision and I was about to break down into rivers of tears. I hope I held it together long enough to use the video, but it might require a redo. Perhaps I am not nearly as put together and in control as I think I am.
My piece of advice to you is to slow cook a turkey. I would suggest using turkey gravy in the slow cooker with the meat. The pot roast turkey was really good, and who wants another baked turkey? When are turkeys on sale again?
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
Thursdays are blood draw day for me. Every Thursday until July 2nd I will be stuck with a needle, so blood is available to monitor a bunch of levels of blood cells and nutrients. Three Thursdays in a row I put numbing cream on my chest so the nurse can insert a large needle into my implanted blood port to draw blood. Accessing my port is the most efficient blood-draw method; I have only had difficulties twice with the nurses getting blood that way and both times we got it, it simply took a while.
The fourth Thursday I get my blood drawn at the lab in the building where my wound care doctor is located. When I finish my wound care appointment, I roll down to the lab for a needle stick in my hand. The lab does not have a nurse on hand to access my port, but I do not feel the pinky sides of either hand, so I ask the phlebotomist to stick me on the back of my hand. Because I am cold so much, it is not easy to get blood and sometimes I get stuck as many as three times. I do not mind because I do not feel any of the sticks and I save an extra trip to the hospital.
Yesterday, my blood draw was at the hospital and it went well. When I have my blood draw at the hospital on Thursday and have chemotherapy on Friday, I have the nurse leave my port accessed so I do not have to be stuck again before chemotherapy. That simply means the needle stays in my chest and an occlusive dressing is placed over it to prevent infection overnight. Yesterday I was not sweating much so my dressing was still stuck this morning much better than last week.
I came home for about 40 minutes after my blood draw to warm up and then went to my seven-year-old’s, Mika, school to have lunch. I cannot believe I am saying this, but the lunch was not bad. It was pot roast turkey. I am going to guess it was the equivalent of throwing a turkey in a slow cooker and it was pretty good. I am ready to debone a turkey and throw it in a slow cooker. The turkey was moist and flavorful, unlike the baked turkeys on Thanksgiving or other holidays. The turkey was served with mashed potatoes and gravy, and I chose a cucumber for my vegetable. It was the first good meal I had at the school this year.
I did not let Mika talk me into watching her reading group after lunch as I usually do because I wanted to get back home, get warmed up again, and start recording more personal message videos for my family. My older daughter works at her massage therapy job on Thursdays and they are required to take a two-hour lunch break to prevent injuries. Since I left the house early and my helper had the day off, my older daughter came home to fill milk glasses for me during her break.
My daughter, of course, hung out here for as long as she could which cut into my video recording time. I like to finish my glass of milk before I record videos so I can put the video camera where I place my milk glass. It was 3:00 p.m. before I was ready to start recording and Mika gets out of school at 3:35 p.m. I needed to get going. I rerecorded the two videos I decided were unusable from December and recorded one more.
The third video was not even very personal. It was a video about the dangers of drinking shots and why you should never do them or get drunk. By the end of my video, all I could think about was something awful happening to Mika because she made a bad decision and I was about to break down into rivers of tears. I hope I held it together long enough to use the video, but it might require a redo. Perhaps I am not nearly as put together and in control as I think I am.
My piece of advice to you is to slow cook a turkey. I would suggest using turkey gravy in the slow cooker with the meat. The pot roast turkey was really good, and who wants another baked turkey? When are turkeys on sale again?
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.