February 18, 2004 DAY #113
Friends,
Hi everyone! My appointment was yesterday, but these last two days have been really busy. My appointment yesterday was a little strange. I went to the lab to get blood drawn. Since I don't have a catheter any more, I have to get blood drawn "like a real man" as one of my doctors said. The lab tech did a great job and got blood out of a small vein on my wrist in the first try. Then I went to the doctor's office and waited. They eventually called me in, but they said that the lab results were not done yet. We did the normal stuff with the doctor, then went to schedule my next appointment, which took about 45 minutes. I went back to the doctors office and the lab results were still not in. The nurse called down to the lab to see what was going on, and my blood clotted, so they couldn't do the lab tests, and cancelled the whole thing. So, back to the lab! This time a different tech used kind of a close your eyes and jab the needle way in really fast and hope for the best technique. Well that didn't work too well in a couple of different spots. It was a little painful too as she dug around chasing the vein around my arm. So they brought in the original guy who was so smooth the first time. He just stuck a needle on the end of a syringe, found a vein and got the blood he needed right away again. I think I will ask for him every time! We finally got done at the lab about 2pm. We picked up the results today, 'cause we were at the hospital for some other business.
Menchie is giving me the IV push Rocephin every day. A visiting nurse gives me a new IV every few days. She has done a great job, hitting good veins on the first try every time so far. The Rocephin is somewhat disagreeable to my system, but I think I am starting to get used to it as well as recover from the infection. I have been comparatively a lot stronger the last couple of days. I am anxious to get off the Rocephin though and return to "normal".
On the medical front: No more fevers. The doctor cut my prednisone from 20mg to 15. No sign or any rash or problem yet, but today was the first day for that. My potassium is way up, but they didn't take me off the pills. I will probably call the doctor about that tomorrow. My blood counts are coming back up also. That is a relief. Creatinine remains a little high at 1.3. It is a little nerve wracking to go one week without lab results. I keep wondering what might go wrong during the week. But I guess I am doing OK and don't need to see the doctor that often. I am sure I will grow accustomed to it.
Lab Results |
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Blood Cell Type |
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| WBC | 4.5 | 5.2 | - | - | 10.2 |
| RBC | 4.20 | 3.20 | - | - | 3.85 |
| HGB | 13.0 | 10.8 | - | - | 12.7 |
| PLT | 130 | 107 | - | - | 184 |
Until next Tuesday!
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com