Thursday, December 22, 2011

Chemo #3

Jimmie's chemo came a day early this week since tomorrow the doctor's office will be closed for Christmas.  Is it really this weekend?!   Oh, my . . . 

We actually had questions today, but did not get much info because Jimmie's doctor had already left for the holiday and the practice partner spent most of the few minutes we had with him trying to figure out how to find Jimmie's lab results.  So, we decided to wait on the questions.  This doctor did warn us, though, that Jimmie can expect mouth sores to begin appearing within the next week.  Something lovely to look forward to.  Jimmie's regular oncologist had been checking for foot swelling - and that arrived this past Sunday night for an indefinite stay.

The chemo treatment room was packed with patients today since all of the typically Friday patients had to be bumped forward.  32 recliners each with an IV stand and a patient fighting for their life.  The lady in the chair beside Jimmie noticed that the IV line was leaking from just below the bag and naturally she reached out her hand to confirm that the line was really wet.  It was an automatic gesture, one I would have taken without a thought.  But it put the nurses into panic mode when they learned she had touched the medicine.  They cleaned her wet fingers and warned her never to do that again before they ever started to fix the leak problem.  I was impressed at how quickly they reacted and took care of everything . . . and then it hit that they were pumping this dangerous liquid into her.  A  sobering thought.

- Linda

2 comments:

Quilting Grannie said...

Linda, can you get some Nystatin swish and swallow for Jimmy's mouth sores. I don't know if it would interact with his chemo cocktail or not. But worth a try to ask his dr. Also have him keep his feet elevated as much as possible to reduce the foot swelling. I know I had that with joint replacements. Spend a lot of time in the recliner with my feet up. God bless you two.

Linda Hill said...

Thanks for the info! The doctor gave us a prescription to get ready for the sores so I hope it works.