Today is Saturday, so we figured there wouldn't be as much traffic headed into the city as there is on a week day. It wasn't until we were on the road that I realized that today was 9/11 and there might actually be a lot of traffic due to it being the anniversary of the attack. Fortunately, the traffic was light and the 16 mile trip that took us around an hour or more the other days was cut in half.
Recording Pete's vitals is always the first thing they do, so he stepped on the scale and it seems he dropped a significant amount of weight in 24 hrs, about 8 lbs. He hadn't really eaten anything in the last 48 hrs; a bottle of Ensure and a banana for breakfast 2 mornings ago, and a handful of pretzels that evening. Food, though was not the issue. Yesterday, after we got home, he had flopped on the bed and dozed off an on. I tried numerous times to get him to drink, but he'd only take a few swallows and I was a bit worried that it just wasn't enough. Today proved it wasn't. He was on his way to being dehydrated.
Today his nurse was F, and just like the past 2 mornings, she was faced with his uncooperative port that gave no blood return. She hooked him up to the iv, got that running, bypassed his arm because it "looked pretty beat up" as she described it. She tried unsucessfully to get the vein on the back of his hand, but that one "ran away and hid", as they so often do these days. She called in the other nurse on duty today (it was very quiet in the chemo ward today as most patients are scheduled for weekdays), who was able to get the blood without too much trying.
Pete's blood work continues to look pretty good, considering all the chemo he's been getting. He was, however, showing early signs of dehydration, so we were told that he would be going home with a bolus of iv fluids that would last until we returned tomorrow.
He slept, or at least drifted in and out of sleep, most of the time. After we had been there about 2 hrs I walked over to Chelsea Market and brought us each a nice, big cup of herbal tea. Today was another infusion of Emend to help thwart nausea, given during the last 20 minutes of the iv drip. F hooked up the continuous infusion pump that delivers the Ifosfomide along with a pump and what looks like about a gallon of iv fluid all packed up what looks pretty much like an ordinary back pack. Pete is a bit shaky on his feet, so she instructed me to get the car (it's about a block away in the parking garage) and pull it into the drop-off/pick-up area right outside the entrance. By the time I navigated my way through the one-way streets, Pete was waiting on the steps.
We swung by the hotel; Pete stayed in the car and I ran in, grabbed his meds and a few other things, and we headed for home. He said he wanted to go home for a while this afternoon, so that's where we are right now. I'm doing some laundry, he's dozing off and on in his own bed, surrounded with 1, 2 or 3 dogs. His father came over and visited with him for a while, but Pete wasn't really in shape to do much talking or listening.
We'll be heading back to the hotel in a bit. Tomorrow we'll do it all over again, but he'll be half way through the treatment. Then we get to experience, once again, what is known as "scanxiety" - the anxiety that builds as the next scan draws near.
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