The Last Chemo!

Yesterday was my very last session of chemo. As is usual for this Granny and  her sidekick, it didn’t pass without incident and I thought I’d do a blog post about it all. We arose early, showered, quick breakfast and then walked down to the bus stop at the bottom of the road because it was drizzling and our nearest stop does not have a shelter. So far, so good. The bus we were waiting for is supposed to arrive at 09.03am and then arrives at the hospital stop at roughly (depending on traffic) 09.45am, so plenty of time for our 10.00am appointment with the chemo chair.

We waited. And waited. 09.03am arrived. No sign of the bus coming around the corner. When it did finally arrive, a double decker at that, it was at least ten minutes late. Hmm, I said to K, let’s hope he tries to catch up on route! But that idea soon went out the window. Every time he stopped to pick more than two passengers up at a stop, the bus stalled. So time was then wasted as he tried to get the engine ticking over again. Sigh. My heart sank, and as we arrived at Elland and the bus stalled again, I saw him talking on his mobile, and fully expected him to get out and tell us all that we had to either get off the bus and catch an alternative as this bus needed a mechanic.

However, he didn’t and we finally made it to the hospital just in time. This time we weren’t in the ‘naughty chair’ but instead, were seated in the ‘final departure chair’ on the other side of the nurses station. It was strangely very quiet as well. We gave the nursing staff a box of chocolates to share between them and a ‘thank you’ card for all their kindness. The nurse dealing with me had some more bad news to relate. Because I had my bloods done this week on the Monday instead of the usual Tuesday, she needed to take some more to test for proteins before I could begin my chemo!

Blimey I thought, what next? My last chemo and everything was going wrong! She assured me that it wouldn’t take long to test, and then we could get going. My cannula was already connected and I was given my ‘cocktail’ of steroids and anti-sickness to be going on with. Trouble is, even when everything is running smoothly and on time, it still takes until 1600pm for all my chemo and the flushes in between before we leave. It wasn’t long before she got the all clear to begin, but then we had another wait because my chemo hadn’t arrived, so instead of beginning my three hourly one at 11.00am as usual, it ended up being way after 12.00 before we got going!

I warned K that we probably weren’t going to be leaving here until 17.00pm or thereabouts and kidded with the nursing staff to make us both a bed up! Thankfully after that, things began to run more smoothly the rest of the day, the weather brightened up outside and as the window next to me was open I was able to enjoy a lovely cooling breeze all day. K busied herself with taking peoples empty cups and plates into the kitchen to keep herself busy (and had a sleep in her chair during the morning.)

Our journey home went quite smoothly, as we caught a bus into town and luckily our bus home was in the bus station so we didn’t have to wait around. So that’s it hopefully. I shall have to go back to clinic of course, I also will have my results of whether my blood has that clotting factor so they can decide whether or not to swing me onto Warfarin now my chemo has ended, and of course I still have the kidney stent insertion to endure. But that’s all.

TG

Technorati Tags: bus,rain,hospital,chemo,chair,blood,chocolates,card,nurses