Friday

After feeling somewhat better in my chest since taking the 400 mg of Ibuprofan I had been taking an afternoon nap when I awoke and slowly walked to the desk in my bedroom and stood there for about thirty seconds when I immediately blacked out and dropped to the floor. I immediately awoke and tried to orient myself as to where I was as a decorative plate was lying next to me on the floor. It had fallen from a height of about 8 ft from a hutch that I must have struck on the way down, although I sustained no injury or bruising from the fall.

My father and sister who were downstairs in the house and heard me hit the floor thought that I had dropped something but they were immediately on the scene to assist me in getting to my feet. I myself remember hitting the floor so I was only out for a few seconds, although that was scary enough.

A call was placed to the Cancer Center and a call was returned by Dr. Balaban who again suggested that I go immediately to emergency room to get checked out. I was obviously reluctant as I had just been through this and figured we'd go through the same thing all over again only to be sent home again. This time however, Dr. Balaban was going to see me in the E.R. this time instead of just the regular staff there.

So again they drew blood, did a chest x-ray and an electrocardiogram as my heart-rate was still racing and gave me the saline solution I.V.

After the tests were complete Dr. Balaban came to see me and said that I was dehydrated and they wanted to keep me overnight to monitor my heart and get my systems back online with rehyrdration. By the time I finally got to my room in the P.C.U. (Progressive Care Unit) it was
after midnight and I was immediately given a Potassium solution I.V. Potassium is irritable to the veins during injection so sleep was not possible until after 2:00 p.m. when the I.V. was switched to a normal saline solution mixed with a diluted amount of potassium that was less irritable than the straight potassium solution. Sleep was now possible.

At 4:30 a.m. the vampires from the I.V. team came in to get their vials filled so sleep was for a very short period. At 6:00 the nurses aid came in to get vital signs so again my rest was interrupted and the sun was about to come up. The I.V. bags were changed as they were emptied and the nurses aid and the nurse herself made regular stops so it was constant activity in the room not allowing for much rest time. Not to mention I had to empty everything that was being pumped into me and with the I.V. and the heart monitor attached this was no easy task.

At least the heart monitor was cordless, meaning I only had to contend with a device the size of a transistor radio hanging from my neck, which then had all the wires going to the various areas of my chest and stomach to monitor my heart.

At 9:00 a.m. Dr. Balaban came in said that I would probably be in for another day until my hydration levels returned to normal through the I.V. treatments.
The day continued with all the ongoing things listed above just being repeated along with a finnicky I.V. pump that would stop pumping continuously for no apparent reason and that required the nurse be called time and time again to restart the pump and no sooner would she leave the room the pump would shut itself off. The I.V. team finally realized I had a port and decided to access that to administer the I.V. through that instead of through the traditional arm I.V.

This all continued throughout the night and into Sunday morning when Dr. Balaban came in around 9:00 a.m and said that I would be discharged sometime that day but that I was now showing somewhat anemic and he wanted to me to receive two units of blood. That process takes 3 to 4 hours per unit, and thats after the I.V. team does what they do to make sure you are getting the right stuff.

The blood transfusions started around 11:15 and there were numerous delays with the pump again. The first transfusion took almost 4 hours which is the time limit on blood being unrefrigerated and not being transfused. The I.V. team finally decided that the port was more of the problem than the pump so they suggested I lie down as that position was the one that worked the best, so I lied for four straight hours without moving to finish the first and second units of blood. It worked because the second unit was transfused in two hours fifteen minutes and I finally left the hospital at 6:00 p.m.

Next up is my cat scan on this Wednesday at 10:15 and we'll see where it goes from there!