Today, Wednesday, is now known in my house as “doctor day.” I show up at the oncologists’ every Wednesday, whether or not I’m to have a major round of chemo. They want to keep a watch on various blood count levels, my weight, etc. More important, my port gets flushed and cleaned, and my chemo pump gets fresh batteries and a new medicine pack.
This last usually gives me mixed feelings, because even though I enjoy getting cleaned up and newly-bandaged, this also involves Changing the Needle. The needle, I need hardly say, is what leads directly into my chest.
The oncologists have a special nurse service to look after such things for those of us who have these pump thingies. Each time, I get a new nurse for the procedure, who usually finds me by the time another nurse has gotten my blood sample and weight. But today, when the nurse found me, I did a double-take — the nurse was my friend D from high school.
And so, I had my port swapped out by an old friend, which in itself was a great relief. In addition, she is the best of all the nurses that I’ve had so far. Did I mention the part about Changing the Needle? All the other times, I’ve cringed mightily at this, because having a needle shoved through your chest wall feels pretty much like it sounds. Today, though, D put the needle in with no pain at all. She also got me re-bandaged quickly and told the doctor to write me out a prescription for some powder to relieve a skin irritation (a simple thing that had occurred to none of the previous nurses, though I’d always complained about it).
Much catching up and gossip occurred during this time. We’ve promised to meet up for lunch as soon as I have enough energy and ability to chow down normally. All this is medicine just as good as any pack of 5FU. Upshot: I feel better now than I usually do at the end of a doctor’s day.
I’ve always felt more connected to my high-school class than my college class (this is common in Cincinnati). I feel as though we’re all traveling through time together. Today’s doctor visit emphasized this. I wonder how I would have felt had I known back then that the girl sitting a few chairs away from me at graduation was going to be putting needles in me in the future?
Rather makes me wonder, too, what comes up next, but I think I won’t ponder that too much now.
white pebble 