I wrote a post 4 or 5 weeks ago lamenting that September seemed like it was never going to end. It seemed to go on forever but now, October has flashed by in an instant, or so it seems and we have Christmas in our eye. I hear Linda starting to talk about Christmas arrangements and we have organised the annual family “Secret Santa” so I’m sure those ‘jingle bells” will be heard at your place very, very soon if they haven’t already been sounding the alarm.
It’s been an interesting week since my last post. Linda’s usual chemotherapy pals found themselves elsewhere on Tuesday, so I spent my first day in over ten years in the chemotherapy ward at the cancer centre whilst Linda received treatment. It was a long day!
She usually has a blood test on Monday which will let the chemotherapy nurses know if she is fit enough to receive treatment the next day but as we hadn’t booked our usual Monday spot we were squeezed in first thing Tuesday, 7.30am in fact! The only good thing about being at the hospital that early is that you get a very good choice of car park space in that horrid, multi-story monstrosity, 7.30 being way too early for most of the patrons of the day to present themselves.
The flip side is that we arrived on Level 2, and the receptionist wasn’t even in yet, he was dragging the chain by a few minutes, so we did have a moment or two wondering if anyone was going to turn up. Everything turned out fine in the end, Linda’s favourite nurse who is a dab hand taking blood from her port was in and got the blood out and away for testing in no time at all and we had a half hour break until we were required on Level 4 for chemotherapy treatment. Then, we got derailed a little.
Arriving on Level 4 we found there were quite a few people waiting to go in for their treatment. The funniest thing happening was the automatic doors were malfunctioning, nurses being able to exit the treatment rooms but not being able to get back in which caused a little guffawing from the waiting cancer patients and their minions. It was a bit of a wait for us though, nearly an hour and nearly everyone else had gone in before we were finally called.
Linda was settled into her treatment chair, the nurse went through her protocols, and everything seemed fine until she announced the blood tests hadn’t come back yet. Drat! So, we waited, sad and wistful, to use some of Banjo Patterson’s prose, for some time unfortunately. Now the nurses through Linda’s ten-year journey have been universally fantastic. Realistically, they are the engine rooms of these organisations, and they really run the show and for all the criticism levelled at the Canberra Hospital and the ACT Government Health Department, I have rarely found cause for complaint in all this time. Of course, people are only human and the two nurses rattling around Linda’s area were a little dozy, but they still did their job to the required standard.
Linda had been in the chair for an hour, and treatment still hadn’t started. Everyone else around us was hooked up and going strong, the strange fellow from Yass opposite blasting out some silly thing on his iPad until another nurse thankfully asked him to turn it down.
I finally checked for Linda’s bloods myself on the MyDHR website and found her white blood cell count had come back well enough for her to start her treatment, and I had a quiet word to one of the dozy nurses and soon things were starting to purr the way they should.
Linda was hooked up and away we went! It didn’t seem to take forever but by the time we finished, with the early start and the delay to treatment, we didn’t get home until around 2.30pm. It was a long and tiring day for me as I had been up since 5am but it must have been harder for Linda. The really good news is that she seems to be past the worst of her side effects, and her cancer markers have started to dip for the first time in 12 months. Looks like we will be putting up with her for a little while yet!
So, another week has gone quickly. Linda is well, all things considered and we aim to start again with a blood test on Monday, no ridiculously early start on Tuesday and her bloods will be in already so we should be home by lunch…..hopefully!
It’s the weekend, the sky has cleared from the overnight rain, and it looks like it may be a very good day. Linda has arranged lunch out for us for a friend’s birthday, so she has definitely been feeling better.
So, take care this weekend and I will be back with another update in the near future.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 