3.29.11

AYNSLEY:

Mom has bad luck with ultrasound technicians. The last ultrasound that she had while I was with her was at Overlake: a really nice, but inept young woman. She was clearly just out of school and it took her three hours to do a 45 minute procedure, leaving Mom cold and uncomfortable for way too long. This morning she had another ultrasound on her right arm, which has been swollen for a couple of days since the increase in IV fluids. The good news: there's nothing wrong with her arms and the swelling has already gone down since the decrease in fluids began last night. The bad news: the ultrasound tech was rude, rough and devoid of any personality. One of Mom's friends was with her during the procedure, watching and trying to make conversation: "what are those lines on the screen?" He answered that he didn't have time to explain it to her, that he had more ultrasounds to do that day and to basically leave him alone. Then he was rough and when Mom mentioned that what he was doing hurt, he didn't stop or apologize. Mom had it 100% right when she told me the story: "this guy had no business being anywhere near a hospital or convalescent home." Absolutely. This work is hard. It's not easy being around sick people and your schedule will not go as planned. If you can't deal with it, don't do it. I couldn't do this work. So I don't.

Aside from the jerk technician, today was another good one for Mom. She had occupational therapy in the afternoon and enjoyed it. She spent nice time with her friends and is still on a bit of a wedding high. She was fishing for more information today: "Did anyone else say anything about the wedding? What did people say about the picture?" It was cute and I'm so happy that she has good memories to focus on.

Tomorrow is back to chemo day. She leaves for the oncologist's office (in Bellevue) at 7:45am and will likely be there for a few hours. If the past is any indication of how she'll feel, tomorrow morning will be great-the pre-meds are strong narcotics and make her very happy. Once she gets back to the Kline and the drugs wear off, she'll have a headache from the intrathecal chemo and be tired from the systemic. But she still should be okay. Thursday may be okay, too, but by Friday, she'll probably feel like crap: super exhausted, nauseous, probably a bit of vomiting...though this time around we have a specific animo acid supplement that is supposed to minimize the side effects, so maybe she won't feel as tired. Fingers crossed.