223) Of Mammoths & Mishaps

March 1, 2008
Saturday

El Milagro: Called in at 2 and Rosie the Tech said I can either come in at 2:30, “or forget it”. She has one ten minute opening and a chair, if I can get there by 2:30. I thank her, grab a sandwich, and ZOOM across town, arriving right at 2:30 on the dot… but forget my starting weight in the rush to make it to the chair on time. “So, that’s my fault?” Rosie quips. “No… I have an internal locus of control so I take full responsibility for all my mistakes and my Swiss cheese brain.” Rosie sets me up and pokes me. Kim the Nurse does my nursing eval. Today I am on the North wall, beside John the Reader. Jo the Nurse says “Hi” when she comes by to fiddle with the chair-side computer, as does Amanda the Tech.

I am waiting for the UT – Tech game to start at 3. Jo comes by to shoot my epogen into my blood circuit and I notice her sticking three syringes into the docking valve and ask “6600?” She replies, “9900” so it looks like I’m getting even more than I thought I was. Later Jo clarifies that they must’ve boosted me to 9900 on Thursday cause that’s when they adjust meds based on peoples lab reports.

I get my mind off epogen-related vein explosions and concentrate on the UT game… which goes down the tubes at the end and Tech ends up winning. DAMN! That about ruins my day, so I click over to Discovery Channel and half-heartedly watch “Raising the Mammoth”, which does take my mind off the loss to Tech... watching these guys spend a coupla years digging a big old mammoth out of the permafrost bog of Siberia. Chilly!

John the Reader is having some difficulty with his session today... chest pains that lead Kim the Nurse to bring over the oxygen machine... and then, somehow, his trocar gets pulled out and blood shoots all over the place and John yells out "OH NO!" and Rosie runs over to clamp off the geyser... and Kim runs to check the machines, and then things get back to normal. For a minute there are 4 staff hovering around John and wiping up the mess and making sure he is okay and comfortable. Watching them jump in this kind of emergency situation makes me confident that they can handle just about anything that comes up here. I sit beside John, watching my mammoth show while also checking on him outa the corner of my eye. He is resting with his eyes closed and seems to be doing alright. They stop his session and patch him up and he rests. When he is ready to get up and take a standing BP, I ask him how he is doing... and he shares that it has been a rough week. He looks tired. He continues that he had two mini heart attacks this past week, was hospitalized and they put two stints in and then one of them collapsed. So, they aren't going to repair that one and he has a doctor's appointment Monday where he'll challenge the doc about why they even did a stint where he thinks they didn't need to put one. I support him by encouraging him to be upfront and assertive with the docs.... remembering to ask what else they could have done (see post # 217; Groopman). I wish John good luck and watch him shuffle out of the big room, on his way to weigh several times and get an average weight.

Reminds me to ask Rosie the Tech if she completed the form to have the weighing machine checked, which she forgot... but then went and got a form right then and filled it out in front of me. Jo wonders why John's weight is always different and mine is always the same, and I reply... "So... thats why we're asking for the thing to be checked!" but I understand her confusion about the whole story.

By 7:30 I am ready to shoot outa here… and Rosie cheers me out by saying, “Try not to think of this place for awhile…” Onward through the bog.

Notes: In at 75.8 and out at 74.6 Kgs.
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.