Work and Treatments

So here's the short of it,
Today I worked a half day and had radiation and Herceptin.  I am really tired.

And here's the long

Today I worked until about 1:15, then I dashed home so that Alan could go with me to my treatments.

I went first to my radiation treatment.  I got into the little changing room and did the routine, strip from the waist up, and.....opened the cabinet door to get the flimsy gown that opens in the front ... and there were none there!  Hmmm... get dressed and go find someone, yell really loud, or....there was a cord on the wall to pull if you need a nurse.  I pulled.  I've never pulled one of those cords before even though I've seen them in every medical facility I've ever been in.  Boy did I ever get a quick response!  A nurse came running as well as a technician, only to find a frustrated half naked woman looking for a hospital gown - not someone prone on the floor or bleeding or anything like that.  I quickly apologized and said that I really didn't know it would alarm them so much.  They were very apologetic themselves.  Maybe from now on I'll look in that little closet before I do the stripping thing. 

My treatment went very smoothly and quickly.  There are two technicians working on getting my placement exactly correct.  Today they had to take x-rays.  Apparently they may need to make an adjustment in the aim of the machine.  They send those x-rays to the doctor as well as to the physics department. I guess I'll know tomorrow if they are making any changes.  The treatment was over in less than 30 minutes from the time they called me back.  And the holding my arms up over my head was pretty easy, even though the x-rays made it take a longer time.  I noticed that the young technician tells me I can relax my arms down just as soon as the radiation beam is over.  Of course she is not in the room during that time, so she tells me over the intercom.  Oh - I didn't mention, since the technicians can't be in the room while the radiation in active, they have two cameras and an audio feed so that we can talk with one another during the treatment.  It seems like I'll have this down in another visit or two! I still don't like the no deodorant thing, but  I'm sure I'll get used to that. 

After radiation I went up to the fifth floor for my Herceptin treatment.  They were completely out of Herceptin.  My oncology nurse, Lori, said that they have been far busier than usual this week -- and it wasn't all because of  making up treatments missed over Thanksgiving.  Anyway, she managed to borrow a Herceptin vial from a pharmacy in the hospital so that I didn't have to come back tomorrow.  Of course my port still isn't working, so I had to get a stick in my right hand again.  I much prefer the port!  I've got track marks all along the vein that runs across the top of my right hand.  I can't have anything done to my left arm or hand since that was the side that they took out lymph nodes.  Apparently that's like making a nice invitation for lymphodema. So no sticks or blood pressures, etc on that side.  Maybe my port can get fixed in a week or two! I understand that it might be just an outpatient, in the office type procedure to fix it up. 

This evening I've been pretty tired.  Sophie seems to know I'm not up to her usual shenanigans, and she's been a little less rambunctious. The tiredness is overwhelming.  Lori says it's my low red counts and that she's amazed that I'm doing as much as I am.  I understand that the radiation treatments are very tiring.  But I've also got an expectation that they'll be much easier than the chemo treatments were! I've had to lock Sophie out of the back room. As soon as Liga go home Sophie just started jumping all over the place, including on top of me!   She is too much for me tonight!