Pt. 2.

OK.. so we got out of the hospital Wednesday. I forgot to mention Tuesday the Pharmacist came by and gave me a number to call the mail order pharmacy so we can get the Neupogen shots (as thats how they make us get them) so we can do them at home. The Neupogen is to help increase his white counts. He is considered Neutropenic, which basically means very suspectible to illness.
Well.. That was a headache in and of itsself! UGh! Finally the lady said when we get a long-term addy (that we'll be at within the next week) to call them back. So I called Wednesday and got transferred 3 times! The people were irritating! They said they had to have a drs' prior authorization! WTH! They called it in, so why did they need that??

Then they said that once that was done then they'd send it out. I was told the day before all they needed was an addy and it'd be overnighted the next day! UGh!

They have him on a non-fresh fruit/veggie diet. They said it's because of the bacteria on the foods. The dr told us to use the rules for Mexico. If you can peel it, then ok.. So like Oranges, Banannas, etc are good. If they are cooked/frozen/canned (from a store) they are good. Apples, grapes, etc bad. You contaminate the fruit as you cut it so no go!

Then Thursday we had some appts. He had labs at 8:30, shot at 9:30, Dr.'s appt at 10:40, spinal chemo at 1:30. Well we did the blood... waiting until 10:15 for the shot.. then about 10:50/11:am for the dr's appt. I really like our dr. We discussed the stomach thing so she upped his protonix to protect his stomach to 2x daily, instead of one.

Then discussed diet, plans, etc. After that we did lunch, then got our Heprin prescription picked up (and it was $0!!) and then went for the spinal chemo, like what was done Monday! That was an hr wait! :-( Well we go back to a room, and the lady that did the vitals was an IGiT!!! I asked for sure what the game plan was as she was acting like it was something else.

Then we were sent to a room and the lady was making the bed, and told me to wait in the hall.. she'd get me when done. Whatever lady! Then James and I went into the room. The Leukemia PA (one of them!) Adrian came in. He talked about what was happening and the nurse came in with an IV. I asked what she was doing and said she was hooking up the adavan (sp!). Ummm, why??

She said it would help him.. No thanks, we opted for none before, so don't need it now. So she acted like I had hurt her feeligns but left. Adrian talked somemore and then went to get the supplies and such (after the numbing cream went on). He came back around 2:15 and set up to do the spinal (aka Lumbar puncture). He took time to figure out where to go. I had told him that the previous time they tried going in one spot but that didn't work and she had to go lower.
Well he tried 3 times in the upper area (The L4/L5) and was unsucessful so had to go get more lidacain. That seemed to take forever. James was getting REALLY aggitated by this point! Then he brought in another person that is supposed to be really good at it. They went in the L5/S1 area and was able to get it. He checked the fluid and it looked good again, and inserted the chemo. Then James laid down for 45 minutes.

Finally the nurse came in and we were able to leave. So we went to Infusion Therapy to get his Duaderm changed. He get Hector or Franco something like that. UGH!! He takes off the dressing and says "You don't have sutures.. Oh... You have to have sutures... Have you had your dressing chenged here?" Ummm yeah.. this is our 4th one here. It's already been checked via x-ray and dressed. It's a hickman catheter.. There is a cuff under the skin keeping it in place igit!

So he says he must go talk to his charge nurse. He comes back and says that it should have the sutures to keep in place. He says he can do it right there. Umm.. NO!!! It's not moved/come out. It has a cuff keeping it in place, and the sutures have already been removed by the VA.. we're not getting new ones. So then he decides to talk to James about the War.

Umm.. what igit asks a Veteran, especially one with PTSD, if they saw suicide bombers/people killing people? You DON"T do that! UGH!!! Then he asks how the "Man's life" is there. James didn't understand him and asked what he meant.. He said "The man's life.. I can't say more because your wife is here". If you can't say more because the wife is in the room, then you shouldn't be asking it in the first place!

This igit also said he remembered James. Umm.. no we've never seen you before. He asked if I'd always been with him, and I said yes. He said, oh it was with another woman. Umm. I've been with James everytime, so NO, it wasn't you!
So finally we left for the day.. UGh! Pt. 3 next.