Thursday, December 9, 2010

Who's That Lady?

Chemo started today, day -8.  First, the nurses flushed the catheter with saline and heparin.  They then started a drip of fluids before putting in the chemo drug, Fludarabine.  The catheter means that they don't have to insert an IV every day, but I'm not sure if mom thinks that the annoyance of the catheter is worth it yet.  While we were sitting, a man who had his stem cell transplant 3 years prior was in the clinic and we talked to for a while.  Although he has had some residual graft versus host disease issues, he appreciated the quality of life and curative effect of the transplant.  In all, mom sat in the chair at the clinic for about 3 hours - mom on her iPad and me on my Kindle.  Aren't we cool?

This also marks the beginning of all the restrictions.  Although her white blood cell counts aren't going to be dangerously low for a few more days, they want to start her getting used to all the restrictions.  So, this means that she needs to wear a mask everywhere except home, car, and clinic.  She does not like the mask and does not enjoy her son telling her to wear her mask, but she's making do.  The good news is that the mask did not stop her from visiting her favorite dress shop in Nashville, Scarlet Begonia.  We walked 3 miles in total in order to shop there.
Mom faces the world incognito

4 comments:

  1. Glad to read shopping is still in order. Maybe the masks wouldn't be so bad if they came in multiple colors!

    Keep the faith and your sense of humor!

    love and peace @

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  2. You go girl and NEVER let anything come between you and your fav dress shop! Glad to see that you are smiling under that mask ;). Maybe kit and cal lie can embellish them for you! Sending love and prayers your way!

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  3. I dare you to go in to a bank like that. You could cause quite a ruckus.

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  4. I know you are just getting started, but it's good to see you are keeping your hilarious sense of humor. Thanks for keeping us posted because we are definitely thinking about you a lot. Good luck!!!!

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