Onward to chemo

Monday was Randy's pre-admission check to be sure he hasn't picked up any bugs or infections. Nurse practitioner Valeria said everything looks fine so we are moving forward. Randy will be getting a reduced dose of chemo. 

Tuesday morning before Randy's hospital admission he wanted pancakes for breakfast. So we went to Old country buffet. They aren't the best pancakes but they are pretty good. 

He checked into the hospital at 9:30 and went up to 7th floor where they took him to his room that will be his"home" for 2 weeks. I like that one wall is basically all windows over looking the lake between the buildings. 

Every time someone new comes in (nurse, head nurse, nurse assistant,etc) they ask pretty much the same questions. I hope they are getting his allergies down right!

A doctor came on to talk to us. There are 4 doctors who rotate this care; our doctor is one of them and so is this guy. He seemed knowledgeable and was comforting to talk to. He had a reasonable explanation of why they can inject the stem cells so soon after giving him the chemo, which helped us relax a bit.

Then we had a bit of a wait until they got him in the system, at which point they scheduled his chemo for 2:30. The first step was for Randy to eat ice, popsicles, and ice cream for 15 minutes. Mouth sores and teeth problems are chemo side affects so the idea is to contract the blood vessels in his mouth to limit the amount of chemo absorbed there. Then they hooked him up.  The treatment itself was uneventful, which is normal. Randy had to continue to eat cold things throughout the treatment and for another 30 minutes 

Afterwards he was pale and weary so he rested quietly until dinner. Hospital food seems good enough - he liked his fried chicken. I walked to the hotel to get a turkey sandwich, then came back to the hospital because I wanted to spend his post-chemo night with him.  Thank God it wasn't a bad night. Night nurse Reba came in at 9:30 to give him meds and hook him up to an IV drip. Then we spent a quiet but restlessness night. Randy had to have his vitals checked every 3 hours and the sofa I was on was un-sleepable, but he's not having any side effects yet so that's all that matters.