I'm exhausted. The jaw pain is back with a vengeance. Tylenol doesn't have much effect on my headache. Not only is ice a problem, even marginally cool drinks cause my throat to seize up. The neuropathy hasn't worsened, but it hasn't gone away either. My digestive system is extremely unhappy, and the infusion pump still annoys me. But at least my nose is the right temperature.
And speaking of the pump, apparently I've been far too casual about removing the lines and the pump on Fridays. During today's infusion, one of my lines caught and I almost pulled the line from the port. When I told the nurse about this, she mentioned that another patient had actually managed to pull their line. From that point on, the patient was known as "Orange Alert" since exposing the chemo to the environment turns the place into a hazardous waste site and brings out the guys in the orange haz-mat suits.
I guess I should take the process of pulling my line a little more seriously. It's a closed system and all, and once you push saline and heparin through the lines there shouldn't be any way for the chemo to be exposed. But maybe some latex gloves might be in order.
Orange is the new black, but yeah...good to be careful with that stuff.
ReplyDeleteYeah, if it wasn't for the fact that by the time the infusion's done I can't wait to get the line out, I'd let the professionals handle it. But after four times removing the line I'm getting pretty adept at taking the stuff out. Of course, this week I wound up putting the toxic waste in a plastic grocery bag, as the nurse forgot to give me the hazardous waste ziploc.
DeleteSafety first!