My most exciting week so far

Tuesday January 9-12, 2007

Well, the rest of this week was a blur. I woke up about 3 AM on Tuesday morning with extreme pain on my left side. I lay in the bed awhile trying not to wake Patsy, but the pain got so bad I had to try to get up. I could only breathe about 10 percent because the pain was sooo bad. Patsy called 911 and I took my first and, I hope, my last ride in a medical vehicle. Those big lights in the ceiling of the vehicle were really bright! When I got to Duke emergency center about 4:30 AM, it was extremely busy. I stayed in the hallway on a gurney for hours before they had one of the small emergency rooms available. I stayed in the emergency room until a bed in the hospital came open. Can you believe that was not until about 9 PM that night? The emergency room people thought the pain was a heart attack. They were looking for a blood clot in the lungs and doing all those blood tests. Patsy had thought all along it was pneumonia because she said my cough had been sounding different for the last few days. Finally she was able to get a nurse to have another doctor check the X-rays. Sure enough, Dr. Fraley was correct!

I was scheduled for my radiation at 3:30 PM so they took me in a wheel chair to the South end of the hospital complex. The wheel chair ride included a ride through parts of the hospital that are off limits to most people, and a ride on the tram where I got to view all the pretty winter flowers. I have always looked at people in wheel chairs and felt sorry for them. Now the table had turned, others were feeling sorry for me or thinking other things. I guess that is just another day at the hospital.

The hospital was going to release me, but decided I needed my gamma infusion before I left the hospital. Duke did not have the same brand gamma that I take in Florence, so they decided to give me their brand, but very slowly so I would not have a reaction to it. Well, 5 hours later the infusion was complete. By then it was already 8 PM and the sign on the doors states that patients are discharged at 11:00 AM. I was afraid I would have to stay there another night. By 9 PM the nurse and doctor decided to discharge me as soon as I was given another dose of antibiotic. Well, the pharmacy finally got the medicine to the nurse. As luck has it, she dropped the pill on the floor. Well, another 30 minutes later I finally left the hospital.

The rest of the week went as normal. Since Monday (15th) is Martin Luther King Holiday and the hospital radiation department will not be working, we decided to return home. As I said before, we can get much more rest at home in our own bed than by being away. We will return to Duke on Tuesday. I will have my 9th treatment on Tuesday, then only 30 more to go.