The March Schedule

Here is a shot in the hospital at Stanford, laptop and all. And below is the schedule for the month of March. Around the middle of the month is when the action begins to really pick up.

March 6 Go to Stanford of labs and a chest x-ray; meet with Dr. Sally Arai, my main Oncologist.
March 10 I begin continuous IV heparin. #1 Gemcitabine, Navelbine. All precautions of diet, mask, the beginning of boiling water, eliminate salads and uncooked vegetables, eliminate all restaurant food, no cheese sliced at the deli, no fresh fruits and frozen fruit, no sweet rolls or donuts, eliminate pepper, spices and any cooked food left over for more than 24 hours.
March 15 #2 Gemecitabine and Navelbine
March 17 Admittance to Stanford hospital
March 18 Rest
March 19 Given VP 16
March 20 Rest
March 21 Cytoxan
March 22 Rest
March 23 Transplant
March 24 Remain in hospital until blood counts recover (At least 2-3 weeks).

Now do you want to hear what these chemotherapy drugs could do to me? No, you don’t. But let me summarize. It goes from nausea, vomiting and diarrhea to mucositis (sores in mouth and throat) to something fatal. That’s enough to hear about. But in a book they gave me, it lists it all. Now you see why my sons wanted to call and talk about baseball, uh? So, let’s talk about something pleasant like my daily routine in the hospital.
Here it is:

5:00 AM vital signs (blood pressure, temperature, pulse) and weight
7:00 AM breakfast and oral care
8:30 AM physician’s visit and room cleaning
9:00 AM oral care, shower and catheter dressing changes
10:00 AM vital signs, skin care, physical therapy and Chest X-ray on Wednesday
11:00 AM Lunch and oral care
2:00 PM vital signs, oral care and skin care
4:00 PM weight
5:00 PM dinner, oral care and physicians visit
6:00 PM vital signs and skin care
8:00 PM oral care and lab draws
10:00 PM vital signs and skin care
12:00 AM vital signs

And then it looks like I can sleep without being bothered until 5:00 AM. Not bad I guess. In the meantime, I can read, do puzzles (that’s not me), hobbies, tapes, movie videos and I suppose watch TV. In fact they say, “Do you have a big box of photographs stashed someplace? Putting them in photo albums can be an enjoyable project while hospitalized.” My daughter in laws would be so proud if they heard that I finally got into scrapbooking!