Monday was a fairly normal day, I think. I was going to write about it this morning, but plans seem to have a way of changing at a moment's notice.
Yesterday there were snow flurries most of the day, nothing that you'd call accumulation. There was quite a bit of traffic going in, more than there was on Friday. The visit was unremarkable; blood work, urinalysis and then home. One of Pete's buddies was getting married in the afternoon and he felt well enough to go join in the celebration. Later in the evening he went out with some other friends to watch football.
Pete's prescription for Mesna was supposed to be ready to be picked up in the afternoon, but I just decided that I'd run over Tuesday morning to pick it up and do some food shopping while I was out. I also decided to wait on writing the blog until Tuesday. Best laid plans...
I was up and about to feed the dogs when Pete called and asked me to bring scissors. Somehow that didn't sound good. He was sitting on the edge of his bed and asked me to cut the tape/bandage that covers the needle in his port because he thought that it had come out again. As soon as I got through the adhesive part I could feel that the pad underneath was wet and as I opened it more there was the needle on its side, just the tip poking into the skin next to the port.
It was just about 7 and Pete said that it was fine when he had gotten up around 4. I went back to finish feeding the dogs, knowing we'd be heading to the city shortly. I was getting a cup of coffee when I heard the ominous sound of retching. I ran in to find Pete in his bathroom and the floor between the bed and bathroom doorway pretty splattered. He kept apologizing and said that he had felt fine until he took his sodium bicarbonate and it had just all come back up at breakneck speed and without warning.
I immediately put together a container with lid, a dishpan, towel, roll of paper towels, hand sanitizer, and a few other items that I thought might come in handy on the trip up in case this unexpected nausea should hit again. We were on the road around 8, and it's a good thing we were prepared. He had several more bouts during the drive up. He was able to call the hospital to alert them that we were coming.
He was still feeling nauseous when we got there so they gave him Kytril (IV) to help settle his stomach. Because he hadn't been able to keep any water down he was given IV fluids and because his chemo had been disrupted when the needle dislodged, that meant that the Mesna had also been stopped, so they gave him a dose of IV Mesna. All of that took a good part of the day, so it was after 4 when they finally hooked him back up to the pump. After the 20 minute wait to recheck the pump we were good to go. It was around 4:30.
We had been told on Monday that we didn't have to return until Thursday, when the infusion would be finished. Now that's been changed to Friday to make up for the lost day of infusion between the time the needle came out and when they hooked him up once again.
Traffic was pretty heavy, so it was almost 7 when we got home. I fed the dogs, jumped in the car and drove over to Costco to pick up the Mesna prescription and fill up the car with gas. On the way over I hit what must have been a deep pot hole and winced because it was a hard hit. When I started the car up to head home the tire pressure warning light came on and stayed on. I'm hoping that the hit knocked some air out of the tire but didn't do any serious damage. Guess I'll find out when I check tomorrow morning to see if it's gone flat.
It was a really rough day for Pete. He'd been napping off and on and then just fell sound asleep a while ago so I decided I'd write up our latest adventures before going to bed myself.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment