Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Cancer Bitch - When Vegetables Turn on You

My chemo treatment was delayed today by over an hour because my potassium levels were high. They looked over my blood tests, hooked me up to an EKG - everything was fine and eventually I got the chemo. Posse member Beth and I drove to Silver Diner for lunch, then had to scramble for home when Steve called and said the home nurse had already arrived. I swear the fork was halfway to my lips!

I told Jackie, the nurse, about the potassium concerns. She asked me if I consume a lot of orange juice, bananas or kale. I had made a big pot of fresh collard greens last week and had been eating them every day. Case closed.

Some of you know that last Friday's trip to JH was a big old mess. I was scheduled for a CT Scan because my doctor was concerned about the occasions I experienced blurred vision and he said my face was no longer symetrical (like Lyle Lovett??). Turns out he had actually ordered a brain MRI. I knew it was a mistake when the nurse told me to drink 2 large cups of water to expand my bladder. What tha what? The MRI is now scheduled for Saturday morning. Holiday weekend.

On the way back from JH Friday, Steve, Doris and I drove to Ellicott City to meet sister-in-law Mary for lunch. We got lost. Repeatedly.

Today, we received a box from Amazon. It was a GPS system, sent by Doris. Steve loved it - got indignant-loved it. He then took it to his basement lair to play with it. I had only one emotion - THANK YOU DORIS!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Cancer Bitch - Baltimore in the Summer

Nelly at the Wheel

Drove back to Johns Hopkins in the summer heat (just got home air conditioning repaired - now the car)

8:30 AM in the waiting room and I hear an incessant buzzing - like a hornets nest. I look across the room and an elderly woman is on her cell phone and everyone else is just sitting there, either reading or talking to each other. I finally realized that I has hearing vuvuzelas. And the elderly woman was watching the world cup on her cell phone. THERE IS NO ESCAPE!

Everything went well - even got out of there in record time. But the home nurse didn't show up. So now I'm exchanging telephone calls with "Home Solutions" while they try to figure out where she is and what went wrong and if they can get me hooked up tonight. If they have to do it tomorrow, I'll have to wait until Friday to get unhooked. We are not amused.

(Addendum - nurse called. 8:30pm and she's on her way. She forgot)
(addendum#2 - 10pm. Nurse just left. She's a substitute and no one told her she had to come today. At least I got my meds)

Also saw sign today at Camden Yards that pretty well sums up our situation!