John came to visit today J I have the BEST HUSBAND ever. I told him I missed him and that I needed to
see him soon and he didn’t hesitate to take the day off, drive downtown in the
snow & hangout in my room with me (even though I wasn’t feeling well and
probably wasn’t too entertaining/fun to be around). My mouth ulcers from the chemo are starting
to get worse L They feel like canker sores and right now are
on the underside of my tongue and in my throat.
The nurses and docs have been trying to push higher dose pain meds for
the past 2 days and I’d been trying just to get by with Tylenol but today I
decided that I’ll submit to the “pill pushers” and I’ll try some
oxycodone. The doc said that the Tylenol
isn’t enough to manage the pain and he recommended a Fentynal (spelling?) pain
med pump that I can manage myself…hopefully it won’t get to that point, but
after much encouragement from John I’m willing to go there if I need to. (Maybe they can just “gork” me with pain meds
and the next 2-3 weeks in the hospital will just fly by? J lol).
I am in a good mood tonight because the “special” menu item
on the hospital room service is “Ravioli with Marinara”. There is one special item on the menu each
day of the week and I’ve tried all of them by this point. The rest of them aren’t worth the pain it
causes to chew them at this point (sad but true) but this is one that I’m
looking forward to. Simple pleasures. J I find it funny because food has always been
my “issue” and I do admit that I like to eat…but these days, not so much!! My
nurse a few days ago said that one of the things that helps the cells grow is
eating protein, so I’m doing my very best to get lots of non-fat dairy protein
(yogurts and skim milk) and meal replacement shakes that are full of extra
protein since the idea of eating meat right now makes me grimace (definitely
not worth all the chewing at this point!)
Here at the hospital you dial “3663” or “FOOD” to request your
meals…every time I dial it I giggle. For
some reason I think its hilarious. It
seems very caveman like to me for some reason.
Just when I thought my ANC couldn’t get any lower (it was 22
yesterday), this morning my nurse told me I was at a whopping 6! I wear a mask, gloves, and a smock/gown type
thing anytime I leave my room (for my own protection). The hospital calls this “contact precautions”
for anyone who is “immunocompromised”.
When I walk the hall each day I am all decked out in this stuff. One of the masks that they have available is
orange and looks like a duck bill. I
hadn’t worn one until yesterday (they were out of the regular yellow masks) and
its hilarious. Us (patients) look like
little ducklings or chickies (with our orange masks & yellow gowns and
“chick fuzz hairdos” from the chemo) dragging around our IV poles as we walk up
& down the 100 ft. hallway. I got
one of the nurses to take my picture of my “chickie gear” today. I posed with the stuffed chick that my friend
Mary Ann dropped off for me at the hospital last week.
The nurses got a good giggle out of it J
-Chellie
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