It’s a go!
So I haven’t posted in a while because there was nothing to update. Karl has been almost two weeks without chemo, which was nice. During that time he had regular blood work and a CT scan, but we didn’t get results from either. That was on the agenda for today.
Our morning started with a trip to the hospital to have more blood work. As I was waiting I was reminiscing about my own yearly blood work. I would have to fast for 12 hours, so I would be hungry and cranky waiting in the lines to take my number, get registered, and finally go in the cubicle to get jabbed. I always felt irked when I saw people jumping the line, especially since I didn’t know why they got this special treatment. I remember speaking to my friend Patti about it a couple of years ago. Patti is a diabetic so she has to have fairly frequent blood work, and when she fasts she often gets low sugar and feels miserable, yet she doesn’t get to jump the line. Now I know who does. Cancer patients. When you think about it, it makes sense on a couple of levels. First on a humane level, cancer patients go through so much that it is a little kindness that they definitely need and deserve. But secondly, and the only one that matters from a health care perspective, cancer patients often have a compromised immune system from the chemo. Therefore they are susceptible to picking up bugs and getting infections, so we don’t want them sitting in a waiting room with people sent there by their doctors because they’re sick. So one small positive about cancer...you jump the blood collection lines. Of course if you didn’t have cancer you wouldn’t be there, so it is a bit of a circular argument...so 6 vials of blood later....
Then we had four hours off. So we went to Costco of course.
The clinic appointment was at 2. Like last time Nurse Practioner Charlene was first in the door. She had some very good news. The CT scan showed that the enlarged lymph nodes were indeed reactive from the pneumonia and all had returned to normal. The blood work from this morning was also all in order, so the stem cell transplant is a go!!!
Charlene took Karl’s vitals, listened and/or poked all around, and ticked that off the list. Karl had a few questions about the upcoming procedure that she answered, and then she left in favour of Dr. Jones.
Dr. Jones had a prepared agenda he made himself follow, because he was doing his own job as well as covering for nurse manager Yvonne, who is off on vacation. First was the consent which normally is something Yvonne does. There were two consent forms. The first was the informed consent that Karl signed stating that the procedure had been explained to him and that he agreed with it, and the second was an Eastern Health form. Not sure why two forms, and I’m not sure Dr. Jones knew either, but he and Karl laughed about the paperwork.
Then he gave Karl a nicely typed up calendar that Yvonne prepared before she went on leave. Just like an itinerary for a cruise. Except it’s not. Finally Dr. Jones again reviewed the procedure for the next two weeks, and answered a couple of questions. We certainly feel that the process has been well explained and that Karl is in good hands.
When we were driving home I asked Karl how he felt. He said shitbaked and happy.
Our morning started with a trip to the hospital to have more blood work. As I was waiting I was reminiscing about my own yearly blood work. I would have to fast for 12 hours, so I would be hungry and cranky waiting in the lines to take my number, get registered, and finally go in the cubicle to get jabbed. I always felt irked when I saw people jumping the line, especially since I didn’t know why they got this special treatment. I remember speaking to my friend Patti about it a couple of years ago. Patti is a diabetic so she has to have fairly frequent blood work, and when she fasts she often gets low sugar and feels miserable, yet she doesn’t get to jump the line. Now I know who does. Cancer patients. When you think about it, it makes sense on a couple of levels. First on a humane level, cancer patients go through so much that it is a little kindness that they definitely need and deserve. But secondly, and the only one that matters from a health care perspective, cancer patients often have a compromised immune system from the chemo. Therefore they are susceptible to picking up bugs and getting infections, so we don’t want them sitting in a waiting room with people sent there by their doctors because they’re sick. So one small positive about cancer...you jump the blood collection lines. Of course if you didn’t have cancer you wouldn’t be there, so it is a bit of a circular argument...so 6 vials of blood later....
Then we had four hours off. So we went to Costco of course.
The clinic appointment was at 2. Like last time Nurse Practioner Charlene was first in the door. She had some very good news. The CT scan showed that the enlarged lymph nodes were indeed reactive from the pneumonia and all had returned to normal. The blood work from this morning was also all in order, so the stem cell transplant is a go!!!
Charlene took Karl’s vitals, listened and/or poked all around, and ticked that off the list. Karl had a few questions about the upcoming procedure that she answered, and then she left in favour of Dr. Jones.
Dr. Jones had a prepared agenda he made himself follow, because he was doing his own job as well as covering for nurse manager Yvonne, who is off on vacation. First was the consent which normally is something Yvonne does. There were two consent forms. The first was the informed consent that Karl signed stating that the procedure had been explained to him and that he agreed with it, and the second was an Eastern Health form. Not sure why two forms, and I’m not sure Dr. Jones knew either, but he and Karl laughed about the paperwork.
Then he gave Karl a nicely typed up calendar that Yvonne prepared before she went on leave. Just like an itinerary for a cruise. Except it’s not. Finally Dr. Jones again reviewed the procedure for the next two weeks, and answered a couple of questions. We certainly feel that the process has been well explained and that Karl is in good hands.
When we were driving home I asked Karl how he felt. He said shitbaked and happy.
Comments
Post a Comment