Thursday, January 27, 2011

A Morning at the Hospital

Clinic at 8:00 this morning.  Joel is MPO which means no food or drink so I let him sleep until it is time to go.  Joel didn't have to be coaxed out of bed this morning..... maybe cause he is hoping to being paroled for a few days.  The hospital was nice and quiet this morning, Joel was the first one here.  First he was weighed, measured and blood pressure was taken.  Weight was down by a kilo but that is not much of a surprise.  It is hard to get more than 2 meals into Joel now as the nausea has hit with a vengeance.  Next his port was accessed, anti nausea medication started and blood work done.  We had to wait for some blood counts to come back before treatment could start but Joel was in the procedure room by 8:30 this morning.  Sometimes he doesn't get in until after lunch.
After the lumbar puncture he will have to lay flat for at least half an hour in order to prevent a headache and I will head over to Starbucks to get him a coffee or chai tea.
The brown bag is Joel's hospital survival bag.   The black one is mine.  We find that the more we bring to the hospital, the quicker the procedure goes.  The days we think we will be in and out quickly and we don't bring distractions, those are the days we seem to have complications and end up staying the whole day in clinic.
Inside Joel's bag is his laptop and reading material.  This morning he read all his new facebook posts before being called in for procedure.  I can't thank you all enough for all the encouragement you send him.

Inside mine.... quilting supplies

Reading material and lots of food for Joel.  He is usually hungry and in a very good mood after treatment.  He never remembers the jokes or the princess bandaids after.  I will cut this short as he should be out of treatment soon.  One more set of chemo after his hour of laying flat is finished.  Then a meeting with the doctor to see if he can go home.

1 comment: