Monday, July 21, 2008

A unit of blood takes 2 hours!

Last Thursday (7/17/08), my blood count was in the toilet so they cancelled my chemo and instead pumped in two units of whole blood and a unit of magnesium. Each unit of whole blood takes 2 hours to go into my body. Problem was because of my low blood count, it was hard to find a vein. Took them four tries to get an IV line in and get blood out for lab work.

When the lab work indicated I needed whole blood, they realized the chemo line was too fine to use for putting in the fatter blood globules. So they had to get in someone who put a fatter line in my right arm (the first four were in my left) for the blood. When they started the first unit of blood, it started to be painful. Turns out the blood was leaking out of the vein into the tissue surrounding it. Not comfortable at all.

So they had to stop that one and call in another nurse who put in another Fat line into my right arm (hole #6). Fortunately this one worked but it was nearly 3 p.m. by this time and nearly four hours required to seep two units of blood into my body. Fortunately the thin line was still in my left wrist and Terri (my chemo nurse) got the bright idea to start the magnesium into my left arm simultaneously with the blood going into my right arm (think Marionette puppet when I went to the bathroom!!) otherwise I wouldn't have gotten out of there at 8 p.m. when I did.

I kidded my chemo nurses that they kept me so I wouldn't get caught in Baltimore’s rush hour traffic. Chemo (part 2B) is slated for next Thursday.

Fortunately, with two units of blood and a unit of magnesium in me, I felt great this past weekend when my cousin Deanna and her husband Paul arrived for the weekend. Deanna's mom and my mom were sisters. She and Paul live in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis. They headed back home Monday morning. Paul said he thought his gas mileage returning to Missouri will be less than the 40 mph he got coming out as both he and Deanna will be much heavier after we ate a lot this weekend. Also visited with my kids and grandson and spent a lot of time enjoying the breeze blowing into shore at my community beach. Check out updated photos at http://campbellbaby.blogspot.com/.

Also pictured on the blog is step-son Brian’s photo and his newly launched sailboat Problem Child which he CAD-designed and built. He plans to begin racing it on the Bay and hopefully the new PC will garner more pewter and first-place finishes than his previously designed and built Problem Child.

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