Afternoon Medical News

So here's the short of it,
This afternoon was filled with medical goings on - X-Ray, tPA, Herceptin, and finally Procit.

And here's the long

This afternoon I had the floroscopic X-Ray of my port. When I got to Erlanger, they didn't have the order for the X-Ray, so I had to wait for all that to get sent to registration - so I was running about 45 minutes behind. The procedure involves injecting a contrast dye and then the doctor watches it as it goes into the port and out into my vein.  Once they got started, it went very quickly and the good news is that my port is right where it's supposed to be and it was letting stuff in just fine.  Apparently my body thought it was a strange thing that needed to be taken care of and made a fibrin across the end of it which kept it from aspirating (giving blood).  The fix for it was to infuse me with Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA).  This is commonly called a clot buster and is used for people who are having strokes or heart attacks - probably in a different dosage! I was on the X-Ray table and heard the doctor say 100 mg for 2 hours.  I said something like "so am I going to be here for 2 hours?"  The answer was, "yes."  I said, "uh, I have a treatment at 3:30."  So we had a conversation about postponing either the tPA or the treatment until tomorrow.  The needle was already in because of having to put the dye in, so I asked if they would call Dr. Schlabach's office and see if I could just be a little late.  So the doctor  compromised, and I got an hour and a half of tPA infusion  and then went to Dr. Schlabach's office for my treatment.


 The tPA worked just fine and dandy.  The needle was already in so I just kept it in when I walked over from the special X-Ray section and didn't even have any of the prep stuff  that's usually done.  Just as soon as Lori pulled the syringe back it started to fill up with blood!  It was pretty exciting to know that it's working well and that next week when I have my TCH it will be fine.  Lori says that in most cases it doesn't have to be done again.  

At the end of the treatment, I got my blood counts.  I had been eagerly awaiting them and the other nurse who works with me came toward me shaking her head and saying my counts were really low.  It just took my breath away.  I don't think I even knew how much I wait for the OK so I can have a few days of visiting Dad. As she dropped off my counts and headed back toward the office, I just began to tear up and couldn't even speak. A couple of minutes later Alan came around the corner and my dear nurse came back and they both looked at me and asked what on earth was the matter.  I couldn't even speak.  The two of them conferred and Alan quickly figured out that I was upset because I couldn't go see Dad.  Then my nurse spoke up and said, "Oh no, you can go if you're really careful. It's your red count that is so low!"  What a relief!  Well, my white counts are actually pretty low too - I really do have to be very careful not to expose myself to anything. I also think it's somewhat of a joke, that I'm relieved my red count is too low not my white count because that has it's own pretty severe dangers. 



So now a part of my weekly treatment is the drug Procrit, which helps the body produce red blood cells.  That should help with my fatigue.  This was the first time I've ever had an injection in my belly.  Lori explained that it burns like crazy if it's injected into the normal sites like the back of the arm.  I didn't even feel the medicine go in. Lori had to make a call to the insurance company to have them approve the Procrit.  They required a complete blood work up, including iron counts before they would approve it.  She was on the phone with them for a good while and she shook her head as she said, "they only approved it for two weeks, we have to call back for another approval if you still need it after that."  I remember on one of my early treatments, she was on the phone with an insurance company (not BCBS) trying to get nausea medication approved for an elderly gentleman.  I overheard her say something like, I sure hope you never have to have chemotherapy if you have this insurance, because he won't be able to get through this if you don't approve nausea medicine.  She was hot under the collar when she got off the phone that day, because they had approved it, but not enough.  So I'm sitting in front of the TV getting ready to watch the President speak - how on earth can we fix this! 

After we did finally get going, we went straight to see my Dad at Kindred.  I was so relieved to see him.  I know it sounds so trite, but my heart felt lighter when he opened his eyes and acknowledged me.  After two weeks of not seeing him, I'll have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.  He looked comfortable, and his color was good.  He was not terribly alert, and dozed off at every break in the conversation.  But when we made good eye contact and I could get him to hear me, he was very attentive. At one point he said, I love you and pursed his lips to throw me a kiss.  I showed him pictures of Max, Madison, and Elijah.  It was very apparent that he knew who they were and he was delighted to see them. He also responded well to Alan.  I look forward to having good visits with him over the next week.