Day -8: Catheter Insertion

It's been a long day. We made it to the hospital at 7 o'clock this morning, just in time for our appointment. It was one of the usual, "hurry up and wait" days that you experience during your stay here. Even something as simple as getting a catheter installed takes a couple of hours, since you move from department to department. Now is the time to start investing in a couple of good books.

The routine was the same as last year, although this time around I was given a slightly smaller catheter due to the fact that I was not donating stem cells. You are given some drugs intravenously to relax you, then they cut you up and slip in the catheter. The process was not too painful since you are quite numbed up. When they are finished with you, you are sent back to the recovery room for a couple of hours to make sure everything is okay. You are doped up anyway, so you are in no mood to complain.

Just out of the operating room. I don't remember my mother taking this picture.

I was quite tired for the remainder of the afternoon. It's been only an hour or so since I started to feel like myself again. For tonight, it's a night of rest and relaxation (and probably some Tylenol as well).

A decision has been made on my chemo dosage. It was rather anticlimatic, as the doctors have made the decision for me. At the meeting yesterday afternoon, they decided to keep me on the protocol and give me 140 this time around. They couldn't justify making an exception for me, even if I am a charmer.

The chemo schedule has been pushed ahead one day, to next Tuesday and Wednesday, with my stem cells to be given back to me on Friday. I have been given tomorrow off to enjoy my final weekend of freedom. At least for a while.