.......To type LOL. I have had to use my night time sleep garment which covers my fingers so that I can not type with two hands and I have had to wear it for the past five weeks. My new sleeve for my arm with lymphedema came in today. Do I love it?????.....not right now. I hope that maybe if I wear it for a while that it will break it in and it won't feel like my arm is in a cast, UGH
I bet many of you have no idea where I've been hiding out for the past five weeks. Here goes....... Back on October 29th New England was hit with a nasty snow storm and it was not the light fluffy type of snow. Instead we had a storm that brought down trees and limbs, due to many still had leaves. Those limbs and trees brought down power lines, and made many roads in passable and also caused many areas of New England to be without power for a week or more. After freezing in our home for two days and three nights we had to go find a hotel. Being a para it is hard for my body to heat and cool properly. So off to Lenox, MA we went along with MANY others that were without power. We were unable to get a handicapped room for the three nights we were there. Hard to believe a Hampton Inn would only have two handicap rooms in the entire hotel!!!!!!!! The twenty-four hours we were in a "regular room" we had to use my slide board to get on and off the toilet. To explain, a slide board is a smooth thin board that goes under my thigh and butt and I slide on it to get from my wheelchair to say a couch, chair and toilet. Because there weren't any grab bars, and the toilet was lower, and I transferred with a bare butt, it caused an abrasion on my butt. Lessons learned....1) do not go any where without my commode 2) do not use a slide board bare butt!
When we got home I should have gone straight to the Wound Clinic to have it cared for, but we thought we could get it to heal on our own...not a good idea for anyone that is a para. Well, stupid me put it off and put it off. Right before Christmas I had to have a CT scan to check on the cancer in my liver, and a bone scan to check the cancer in my bones. We are now into the month of January and the CT scan came back that the tumors had slightly increased. Unfortunately the drug I was on stopped working. Praise God that He gave me almost two years with this drug and it put the tumors in my spine into complete remission! When you are stage IV the doctors work to control the disease. When one drug does not work or stops working we move onto a another drug. The week that I was to start Abraxane I developed cellulitis in my lymphedema arm which is an infection, and it had to be taken care of before I could start chemo. When I began the second cycle of chemo the wound began to get larger and deeper. Ed was telling me it was getting worse, and I again put off going to the Wound Clinic. I was being seen three days a week for treatment for the lymphedema in my arm and one day a week for chemo. I was just plain exhausted. I had promised Ed that I would go as soon as my arm was under control.
Beginning the week of March 4th, I began running a low grade fever and it was on the 10th Ed took me to the emergency room. I was admitted to Baystate and taken up to the oncology floor. If I had to be in the hospital at least I was on the onc floor with many nurses and personal care techs that had taken care of me two years ago. They are are so good to me, as they moved me to my "princess" private room that I was in the last time. I miss all of them. I joke and call the hospital the "Baystate Hilton" due to the awesome nursing and PCT staff and the food. Yes, I did say "food". Everything on their menu is low fat and heart healthy. When you order veggies they are not cooked to death, but are crunchy! A turkey sandwich is made with REAL turkey! So, now you understand why I consider it the "Hilton" of hospitals. After a few days my wound Dr. explains that my wound is so badly infected that he needs to debried it. After two weeks in the hospital, the next step is to go to "rehab"... in other words a nursing home so the wound can be properly cared for until it heals enough that I can go home........To be continued...........(the CNAs are knocking at the door to get me ready for bed) UGH!
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