Chemo round 4

Can't believe I totally glossed over round 4 of chemo!  OMG, it was an experience.  I was excited for this round - I was being sent to what is termed "the penthouse" suite.  Apparently this is the best place to get your chemo, so I was happy that I was going to be getting at least one of my rounds done up there.  There was a lot of expectation for this place.  The first place I had was like a dungeon, no windows, cramped, it's like they've just shoved a ton of chairs and beds into an overflow space.  Very depressing.  The other unit I go to at least has windows, but again, a pile of chairs and beds everywhere, and still pretty depressing.  So the penthouse must be awesome!!

So I made my way up to the 4th floor.  My first impression - it's just like all the other places, just on the top floor with a nice view out of all the windows.  I was told to take my heat pack and go wait in the waiting room until my nurse was ready for me.  

My nurse finally shows up and introduces herself.  She then notices that the news is on tv and starts watching the tv!  I'm like OMG, hello???  My chemo takes 3 hours to run through and you're wasting time watching TV?  Not very professional.  She finally takes me to my chair and starts babbling on about christmas and how awful it is and so much to organise with family etc etc.  I'm like wow, you're so cherry.....   She then proceeds to muck around trying to find a blood pressure cuff, sorting out other peoples IV's, totally disorganized.  I can see the time ticking away and I haven't even started yet!  And not once did she stop babbling on and on about nothing.  It didn't matter what she asked me, she managed to turn it all back to her and make it about her.  So I gave up trying to answer anything.

Finally it was time to get the IV - she managed to get it first try, thank god, and it was time to finally get the infusion started.  Now usually they run the fluids I need over the hour at the same time they run the steriods.  But no, she had to run them separately.  Good god, I'm going to be here all day!

So here I am, Christmas Eve, getting filled with my toxic chemicals, and some lady walks in with a harp.  Ok, nice idea, walk around playing a harp for the sick people.  But really not my cup of tea.  She sat directly infront of me and started playing christmas carols on the harp.  You don't know true torture until you have to listen to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer played on a harp.....

Finally she moved on to torture someone else (who hopefully was more appreciative than me!) and I could go back to sitting there chilling out.

The rest of the afternoon passed relatively quickly.  I finally got out of there after 4pm, as usual, ready for my two days of freedom.  Yay christmas!  Oh, the fourth floor is also where the inpatient unit is, so I got a sneak peak of where I'll be when I get admitted for my internal radiation.  Depressing place.  I'll be so pleased when all this is over and behind me.

One more round to go!!