Surprise! You Lost All Your Blood Cells!

Tuesday has somehow become official blogging day, so here's the latest.
Treatment started early yesterday. My appointment was at 8:15, but since there were a few breaks in communication between Justine, who graciously arranges companions and babysitting for me, and Melinda, the prearranged companion, and me, we left Melinda's house a little after 8, and after running into road work on Chinden and detouring to State, I ended up getting there at about 8:40. Good news is, at MSTI they generally treat cancer patients like gold no matter how late they are for their appointments!
Puzzle making time was all too brief again. Melinda got a little extra in while I was having my port accessed and blood drawn. That only takes about 10 minutes, so it doesn't really require a companion's company or conversation.
Just a few minutes after I arrived back at the puzzle table I was called in to see the nurse practitioner. On the way in I got weighed and had lost 7 pounds which was no big deal, but I was excited about it because I had held pretty steady since the first few weeks of treatment when I lost about 8 or so. Apparently most people gain 10 pounds on chemo because of the steroids given to prevent nausea during the infusion portion of the appointment. So even though you'd expect to lose a lot of weight because of hating food and feeling sick and all, surprisingly one more benefit of treatment is weight gain. Yeah! So anyway, I had sent Melinda to the room early so I wouldn't suffer the humiliation of being weighed in front of her, but no sooner was I settled into the room with Melinda, the nurse who weighed me stuck her head in and said, "Do you realize you lost 7 pounds this week? Last week you weighed blah-blah-blah, and this week you weigh blah-blah-blah." So I said I did realize that, and thanked her, and Melinda graciously just played it cool and didn't say "You weigh what?" or anything. Thanks, Melinda.
The next bit of excitement was when the nurse practitioner came in and said she didn't know what to do, and perhaps she'd have my blood draw redone. The lab had provided her with the breakdown of my blood counts, and it was showing I had a huge drop off of platelets, and zero white blood cells. She was trying to figure out how I could look the same and feel the same as last week and have my blood work so dramatically different at the same time. Just as I was getting up to get a redraw, the error was discovered. Later at infusion the nurse told me what had happened. The lab workers have lots and lots of tests to run quickly, and because of this they sometimes don't have the official lab labels made to put on the individual vials of blood. These labels have your name and birth date and all your specific information so the samples won't be mixed up in the lab. When my draw was taken the lab labels weren't ready, so the nurse followed the established protocol and put pre-prepared patient labels on my vials of blood instead. They contain the same information of the lab labels, but aren't "official" so as I understand it, when those samples come to the lab the lab technicians put the "official" lab labels over the unofficial patient labels. Well, as luck would have it, at the same moment my vials of blood were submitted to the lab, another patient's "official" labels were laid right next to the vials, the lab technician assumed the vials and labels went together so without double checking put the "official" labels of the other patient on top of my unofficial labels, then put the official labels with my name on the other patient's blood samples. So the bad results were his, but they came up on my chart because they were labeled with my name. So in the end I didn't get out of my chemo or anything. The funniest part was the nurse in the chemo suite desperately trying to figure out how to get the bad sample report off my chart before Dr. Montgomery saw it. Apparently she's noticed how cranky he gets when his computer is messed up also.
So it was kind of an exciting day, although the actual infusion was much as it always is, except for the variety of Melinda, which made it different and interesting, of course.
After picking up a refill at the pharmacy and yet another variety of stool softener to try in the endless and futile quest for normal bowel function, we were off to lunch. We tried a Vietnamese/Thai place in the same strip mall I described last week where The Idaho Fry Company also makes its home. They had some good lunch combination deals and I got some delicious spicy chicken that came with fried rice and cha gio, a kind of crispy egg roll that you wrap in lettuce and dip in a delicious clear sauce. Melinda ordered some fresh rolls and Mandarin chicken, and we both had enough to take home for later. All this action and we were done by about 12:15!
Monday afternoons are busy, busy at our house for some reason, and this was no exception. Immediately after saying goodbye to Melinda I had to pick Kate up from swimming lessons, then Taddy up from Charity's house (sweet Justine had picked him up at my house, dressed him, and dropped him off for me since I wasn't sure where he was supposed to go when I left for treatment). We all got home just in time to take Hunter and Rachel to a dental cleaning, then leave them there to take Kate to piano. On the ride to piano Tadman fell asleep in the car, so back at the dentist's office I opened the windows and sat in the car with him to make sure he didn't get too hot, then took Hunter home to meet up with some friends, went back to pick Kate up, then finally picked Rachel up back at the dentist. Hunter discovered he needs to have his wisdom teeth extracted right away, and our dentist referred him to a specialist because the wisdom teeth have grown so close to the nerves it will be tricky to take them out. He needs to do it right away so he'll be all healed up before contact football season begins a couple of weeks into August. This summer's going to be more eventful than I thought!
Generously Greg brought home a couple pizzas and an ice cream cake so I wouldn't have to cook and the kids could sing "Happy Birthday" to me. It ended up being just Tadman and Kate and Greg and I, as Hunter and Rachel were with friends and Parker had left for boy scout camp early that morning, but Tadman sang beautifully! I can't figure out where he learns all the songs he knows, but he seems to know them all. So everyone ate in shifts watched a few pointless tv shows and went to bed.
Most of you know it was my birthday last weekend, Saturday, and for those who wonder I turned 43. Greg rented a cabin up at Tamarack for Friday and Saturday night, so he left work early and we headed up there in the afternoon. Since Tamarack has been seized by the bank, there are some great rental deals available. And these are beautiful homes with views, deluxe bathrooms, big decks with fireplaces, and hot tubs. Of course, you are pretty much all alone up there, and none of the amenities are available--even the golf course is closed--but it's definitely picturesque. While we were up there we went to dinner in McCall, we drove to Warm Lake and walked around, we drove a little past it to the summit right above, saw a little campground no one was using so decided to get out and try to get a little better view of the valley below, but once out of the car got completely swarmed by mosquitoes, so went screaming back to the car and had to settle for the view we got from the car on the way back. We had some lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Cascade, looked at the property we own in Donnelly, and spent the late evening in the hot tub looking at the great big starry sky and all the satellites in orbit. We had a chance to talk for the first time in a long time, which was good, but difficult because we have a lot going on right now and the talks are pretty big and meaty.
All in all it was nice to get away for a little while, nice to relax, nice to have time to do things like clip my toenails, watch HGTV in peace, and enjoy the change of pace. Thanks Greg, for making arrangements and taking me. I'm glad we went.
Brenda tells me I need to thank Becky and Jamie for the birthday lunch at Costa Vida last week, so thanks Becky and Jamie. I thought that was all Brenda's doing. Thanks to the Ablemans for the flowers and the cookies, to my brother John and his wife Michelle for the adorable bouquet of flowers that came this morning, to my sister Heidi for the card, and to the members of my water aerobics class who continue sending cards of support my way. I thank Rachel for watching our kids and keeping our house under control while we were gone, and to Heather for keeping Tadman and Kate on Saturday when the older kids had things going on. Thanks for the ongoing support and help of all my family and friends through this long, long process. I am glad you have the determination to keep going and going. I've said it before, but this is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. On to taxol!