Monday Clinic

Yesterday was another long hospital day. I promise I'll try to stop complaining about these crazy days at the hospital. Although to be honest, it will probably stop about the same time they stop happening. It was good that I had the weekend to relax otherwise I would have been even more exhausted today.

It started with blood work, physio, and x-ray in the morning which was all fairly regular. I wish being poked twice for blood wasn't considered 'regular' for me. My poor little damaged veins.  In the afternoon, I met with the pharmacists who reviewed my medication list, listened to all my complaints about the side-effects, and told me there was nothing she could do to decrease the symptoms.

Afterwards I had my pfts which took forever. As it was the official testing for my three month assessment, I had to do seemingly every test. For those who are curious what 'every test' means, there was the one with slow inhalation and exhalation; one with slow inhalation and quick exhalation; one with slow inhalation, slow exhalation, slow inhalation, hold for 8 seconds and quick exhalation; and finally the two separate ones in the box with the panting and blocked oxygen.

Each test is repeated a minimum of 3 times, more if I screw up or don't do well somewhere. I definitely feel as though I've been through a workout by the end. I also had my blood gas levels taken there. Blood gas levels involves a painful needle into a artery in the wrist to check if you have the proper amount of oxygen in your blood. No surprise, the technician missed the first time but was still determined that particular spot was the best. After rubbing the bleeding area with alchol, went back in for a second try. Thankfully she was successful but afterward, the blood bubbled in the location instead of quickly clotting (thanks to my blood thinners) so she had to put basically her full body weight on my pained wrist to both stop the bleeding and disperse the pool of blood. I was a pained tired mess by the time I left.

The long pft visit made me super late for clinic. Since I was running late, most people had gone home so it was fairly quick as I think the doctor wanted out of there as much as me. There were no results from my gastric emptying test but my CT scan looked better than the one from December (yay!). Apart from increasing a bunch of my meds (yes the ones I had been excited were decreased last week), there wasn't anything else to review.

I came home in time for a quick shower before the home care nurse arrived. Since the vac machine has been removed, the only time I can now shower is right before the wound dressing is changed as the dressing gets soaked. The other days I get to 'enjoy' a shallow bath with hair washing done in the sink by hairdresser Isaiah. We've finally gotten to a point where there is no longer any yelling during the process and I no longer get poked in the eye. Progress!

I spent today recovering and doing fairly little. I did managed to make some progress on the toque and realized it's somehow turned into a monster hat. I'm not quite sure where I went wrong and hope it's only an illusion or that the yarn will shrink or maybe Isaiah will manage to grow a bigger head to make it fit.