New TV = Fun! Emergency Room = Not Fun!

So yesterday was a pretty exciting day for two reasons: I got a sweet new TV and I had to go to the emergency room at the hospital (as you may be intuited from the title of this post).

I started the day out sorta badly; I woke up grumpy because I had all these problems rotating my bed the night before. See, I knew I wanted to get a new TV, and with the way my bed was facing, there wasn't a place to watch a TV. So I had to move my bed 90 degrees counterclockwise, which wasn't that easy. Then Susan came to help me, which made it easier, but after she left I discovered that the frame was broken. My arm was still a little sore from my port placement, but it wasn't that bad. I was tired though, and moving the mattress and box springs and then fixing the frame alone was exhausting for me.

So when I woke up the next day, I was really tired and not feeling that great because I hadn't slept that well. I thought about skipping breakfast with my parents, but it's sorta a tradition in these parts, so I still went. I thought I was just having a regular bad morning...

After breakfast, Mom and Dad told me we could go TV shopping. My parents feel so terribly awful that I have to go through this, which is sweet of them, but clearly it's not their fault. Anyhow, that makes them want to take extra-special care of me, so they wanted to get me a TV to watch when the chemo treatments make me feel like hiding out in my room. I was just thinking of a little old school $100 thing and a cheapo DVD player, but they wanted to get something really nice.

"Got a flat-screen TV, 32-inches wide, I believe yours says Etch-a-Sketch on the side!" Thanks Weird Al, and pardon my liberties to suit my cause...

So yeah, they got me this really sweet 32-inch LCD flat-screen hi-def TV and a nice DVD player. Here's a picture of it, with my sister's head to show you how big it looks (the TV, not her head).

I love my sweet new TV, and I think it'll make my harder days go by a little more easily. Thanks Mom and Dad for such a generous gift! I really appreciate it! I've watched a couple movies and they look awesome! I like the picture above because it looks like Crush the Turtle is talking to Susan...

Anyway, after Mom and Dad set up my TV, they left. I was starting to feel really tired and sorta sick, like I had the flu. I watched Mean Girls, and when that was over, I was really flu-ish. I tried to take a nap, but I couldn't sleep because my body had aches and pains (apparently referred to as "myalgia" in the medical world) and I was experiencing some pretty strong chills. My oncologist's office gave me an hour-long educational course on the side effects of Taxol, and one of the things they really stressed was to watch out for any sort of infection, a good sign of which is a fever. I was to call if I had a fever above 100.5.

Since I forgot to pick up one of those nice digital thermometers, I called my dad to bring me one. He came with it after work, around 5:00. I took my temperature, and got 101 and 100.8. I called Dr. M.'s office (my oncologist) to let them know what was going on, and I talked to a nurse. Naturally, they were headed out the door, but the nurse took her time asking me all my symptoms and told me she'd call me back after she called the doctor. The doctor said I should go to the emergency room just to make sure everything's OK, and they were going to send over my file and some information.

I cried a little just because I didn't want to have to go to the emergency room, and because I didn't feel good, and because I was really hoping I would just sail through chemo. When stuff like that happens, I get upset because I really don't like that this is what my life has become, but I know I don't have any choices here, so I just have to go through it. It's just hard sometimes. But mostly I do OK.

Anyway, I was glad I'd had my dad stick around because he took me to the hospital. They got me all checked in and into a bed, and took a lot of blood for blood cultures. That's easy to do because I have my chemo port, which is a 2-way street-- they can put stuff in or take blood out. They do have to put a needle in my arm, but it's not that bad. I had an x-ray, and then later a CT scan to make sure I didn't have any pneumonia or blood clots in my chest or lungs, which meant this guy had to put an IV with a big tube in my arm. It had to be on the other arm because they needed to draw blood from two sites for my blood cultures. And the tube had to be big because they put contrast in me to see the image better. That IV hurt because the tube was bigger, and the two male nurses were trying to get me to relax so my vein wouldn't spasm and collapse. They told me to go to my happy place, which was on top of Mary Jane, looking down Drunken Frenchman.

Nurse: "Are you in the gondola, getting to the top?"
Carrie: "No, I'm at the top, ready to rip down!"

It was nice to think of skiing. Man, I wish I could do that today. Or tomorrow. Or even this season... we'll see...

The weird thing was when they put the contrast in my vein for the CT scan. They told me I would feel flushed and like I really had to pee. This is mostly true. I did feel flushed, but when it went in, I felt like I WAS PEEING! So naturally it was hard to hold still when I felt like I was uncontrollably wetting my pants. When it was over, I would have sworn I peed my pants, but I didn't. What an odd sensation.

Five hours later, they couldn't find anything wrong with me and told us we could go home. FINALLY! While we were getting ready to go, the nurse asked me what I do for a living. I said, "I fight cancer." I thought that was a pretty good answer, though I clarified that I used to be a waitress and am now unemployed. My dad asked me if I didn't like to say I'm unemployed, but I don't care at all. Some of my favorite times of the year are when I'm not working, out traveling and living the life of a lady of leisure.

I decided to stay at my parents' house in case anything went wrong. But nothing did and I feel well today.A little tired, but I took a nap and am trying to focus more on eating right and drinking tons of water. Hope you all have been having better days than I!

What a day!