We arrived at the Houston outpatient lab earlier than anticipated. I cannot seem to get the timing right on the travel; we’re either early or nearly-late each time and it is probably a lesson for me in accepting the lack of control. I cannot determine how many vehicles, the fluidity of our own departure, the weather, the number of construction zones, or the behavior of other drivers, but something inside me insists on trying to calculate it properly. Nonetheless, we got there, dropped the car and were greeted by the lab personnel without hiccups.
We surprised them with Roy’s catheter. It has become part of our everyday so we had not thought about it. Roy’s required to have a urinalysis before every infusion, but the lab could not deal with the catheter. They quickly arranged for a nurse in the infusion center to handle getting a sample for urinalysis. The blood draw was without incident. We went upstairs to the infusion center for the nurse but had to wait for his appointment time because they had no extra treatment rooms. Once in the infusion room, Roy’s nurse for the day, Daralyn, attempted to get the required sample but Roy’s bladder refused to play. Roy got some more water to drink, and the catheter got a clamp, before a later attempt proved successful. We waited for the lab results. At every point, we wondered if we were going to be driving home without the infusion.
Roy is supposed to have his infusion around 11:30 am, but I had plenty of time to color almost two pages in a coloring book that I brought along. Labs indicated that Roy’s sodium was a touch low (129) so policy dictated that the infusion nurses get permission from oncology before proceeding. I continued to mutter prayers to myself every so often and we both hoped he’d be allowed to have the infusion. While we were waiting for clearance and the urinalysis results, Roy’s previous infusion nurse Madysen stopped by to chat. The urinalysis test also came back a bit wonky which triggered the same process; he doesn’t have any symptoms of infection, and he has urology on Monday, so oncology eventually let the infusion proceed.
Apparently, Roy also gets to have a thyroid test every six weeks while in treatment; Daralyn noticed the order in the system so she got that blood sample from the port before the infusion. The infusion takes about 40 minutes and the injection takes 8 minutes, so once everything is approved and double-checked, the actual dosing does not take a super-long time. It just seems really long if it doesn’t start until after 2:30 pm. Roy is needle-phobic and the injection is a slow one into his leg, so Roy has to be distracted during that part. Daralyn talked to him about pets – how she got her cat, our cats, her dog, and so forth. Roy kept his discarded face mask over one eye so he couldn’t see the injection site directly.
Soon thereafter, however, we were able to go downstairs and retrieve the car and be on our way. Roy has been tired, and complained that his legs were achy, but he has been able to do simple math problems and tell me where he is, who he is, and when it is when I have asked him. Last time, the problems occurred after a few days, so I suspect I will be hyper-vigilant until we pass the same amount of time and get clear without issues. Roy has a new measuring shot-glass for his lactulose which makes it seem like less (although the amount is the same) and we’re staying on top of those medications. PT came yesterday and they had a regular session. We’ve added some Gatorade Zero to his beverages to try to address the low sodium lab.
Next up is Urology on Monday. Roy would very much like the catheter to be set aside. He’s still using the walker (the catheter bag needs a place to hang) and the cheery blue tennis-ball legs have not yet arrived so I am guessing that they will show up the day that he sets the walker aside.
Still scared, but just watching at this point, and so far, so good.
Waiting 
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