Day -4 has been very similar to Day -5. The main difference being that today I was foiled by my own procrastination. My PCT came in bright and early and wrapped my arm up ready for a shower. I then proceeded to lie in bed for another half an hour because I was feeling extremely lethargic. Just as I was about to make the giant leap from bed to bathroom a nurse came in to administer my pre-medications. Unfortunately this meant that I had to postpone my shower again.
So I decided to remove the cling wrap around my PICC line as the pre-medications were slowly infused. At this time, my breakfast also arrived which fortunately I managed quite easily. At this point the combination of Benadryl and Ativan had kicked in quite nicely and I slept through until lunchtime. After lunch, which also went down quite easily, I had the pre-meds for the Rabbit ATG, which again made me feel sleepy. Unfortunately, at this point, they also gave me Lasix so, instead of sleeping, I was up every ten minutes to relieve my bladder. During this time I watched a movie called The In-Betweeners. It was very funny but I would not recommend it for children or the morally sensitive.
It was at this point things took a small turn for the worse as I started to get a stomach ache and I felt a little nauseous. Instead of taking more Zofran I decided to take some Composine as I am only allowed one more dose of Zofran between now and midnight.
At this point I went to the toilet and had diarrhoea. The nurses were really good and helped me back to bed as I was also feeling a little lightheaded. They have also put a "hat" over the toilet seat to collect a sample from my next deposit.
Right now the Rabbit ATG is still running and it will be for another 6 hours but I think it is the Cytoxan that is really knocking me around. And the best part is I get to do it all again tomorrow. In all honesty I have always said that I have hoped for the best but prepared for the worst, well mentally anyway. So far the process has not been the best but it has been far from the worst I had expected.
The nurses have been absolutely excellent and extremely diligent about listening to all my complaints and given me all the options associated with them. I believe one of the best things about North Western Hospital is that they don't use any agency nurses like they do in Australia and, although some of the agency nurses are good, there is always a clear difference between the full and part time hospital nurses and the agency nurses.
Right now, I am starting to feel to better. I seem to be going in a cyclical up and down pattern and I think I am heading up at the moment. Thanks to my mother who is diligently typing this post as I dictate her on my hospital bed. Until next time, stay well :)
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