Survived second CAKE today! Horray! We didn’t get home until 7:30pm but once we got back to the infusion center, everything went smoothly till it was time to go home. We encountered more problems with the insurance company in the form of limitations on my prescriptions to control my nausea. Honey will be trying desperately to reach someone at the insurance company tomorrow - even though it’s Saturday and he probably won’t get far until Monday morning. *sigh* I may have enough anti-nausea medicine to last me through the weekend…I hope.
Since we left the dogs in the house for almost 12 hours on the dot, we really weren’t surprised to come home to find Scarlett had poo’ed in her kennel (the runny kind!) and her kennel and bed were covered in icky poo. She and the entire downstairs floor reeked as well. Honey sent me straight upstairs while he cleaned the bedding, the kennel, fumagated the downstairs with air freshener and gave the Lil’ Bit a bath. Bless him for sparing me more nausea from the smell of that poopie!

Now it’s time to rest. I’m exhausted and weak and the cold sensations have returned in full force and my muscles hurt and my stomach’s a little touchy (thank you two nausea meds and a can of good ginger ale!). I’m off to bed soon! More tomorrow!

Kill ‘em with kindness is what we did. We appeared sweet and gentle and patient and kind, yet direct and clear and assertive all morning. Even though we were both fuming inside with rage and frustration. Got into the room with the nurse (a new one, let’s call her Nurse Nasty - though not in a kinky way) and had to go through extensive detail of all the symptoms I have had since the first piece of CAKE, if they’ve gotten better or worse, if I was pooping or puking or sleeping or thinking about ships and seas and ceiling wax and whether pigs have wings. Finally was kicked out of the clinic exam room and was told to go “sit at Michelle’s desk to schedule your next treatment and blood draw…down the hall then turn left.” I found her cubicle but it was empty and there was a sign on the wall that said: BE RIGHT BACK! PLEASE HAVE A SEAT!

Which I did.

For three minutes.

“This is freakin FUN.” I thought as I sat there.

Then I got up and flew to back to the infusion center, rounded up my two lovely nurses who are treating me today and told them we had the green light for CAKE. One hour and two bags of steriods, anti-nausea medication and a quick game of UNO later and here we sit. The steriod made me jittery, antsy. Sort of how I feel at the beginning of an anxiety or panic attack, though I wasn’t panicking or having anxiety over anything (anymore today, at least). That’s when the Adavan kicks in - to control nausea and mellow me out. MY blood pressure was taken once again, the UNO cards were put away, iPod on (”Helloooooo Dave Matthews!) and I’m about to close my eyes. We’ll probably be here well into the early evening. Sheesh. Not like we had anything else planned.

So we’re on a roll…ZZZZZZzzzZzZZZZZZzzzzZzZZzZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……………….

ARGH! The frustration begins!

Earlier this week, we tried to get some of my post-CAKE medications refilled at the pharmacy but the insurance company wouldn’t refill them until after the 12th of January. That didn’t work for me since my next CAKE treatment was quickly approaching (today, the 4th of January). The aforementioned prescriptions were not 100% necessary so I was willing to overlook that annoyance.

But then today we show up at the hospital to get CAKE, Part Two. There is a particular medication that I am supposed to take the morning of treatment and unfortunately, I forgot to call it in until early this morning. The pharmacy here at the hospital opens at 8:30 so I figured we’d just be delayed a half hour. No biggie.

So we’re getting settled in here and the nurse is again having trouble accessing my port. So she shot me up with some heparin and we waited for it to unblock the port for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, I sent Honey to the pharmacy to check on the status of my Today medication. Half an hour later, he returned, empty-handed, saying that the pharmacy claims the insurance company won’t refill that rX either until the 12th! ARGH! He nagged them and they called the insurance company back and somehow got it approved but won’t be able to pick up until 10:30 this morning. Lame. But I guess I could wait another hour or two.

When he returned from the pharmacy, my nurse came in and informed me that Nurse Skippy (remember, we don’t really like him and this might give you some indication as to why!) at my doctor’s office (across the hall from the treatment area) claimed I was supposed to go to the clinic (ie. the doctor’s office) for a visit BEFORE coming here this morning for treatment. WTF?! I had my blood drawn on Monday and already visited with the doctor! Fine. Oh but of course they don’t have a room available for me over there so I have to wait for one to open…. blah blah blah. Oh and I’m supposed to get THREE drugs in this fancy cocktail but all of a sudden the doctor or Nurse Skippy or some nasty little sprite only ordered TWO of the three because of a new potty-related symptom I confessed to when I arrived this morning.

I have no idea what’s going on. Honey’s on the phone (on hold of course) with the insurance company trying to find out WTF is happening over there. I’m sitting across from him, patiently waiting for a nurse to come get me and take me to the damned clinic so I can wave hello, probably wait in one of their rooms for another hour or two just to be sent back here and not start CAKE until noonish I’m sure.

I’m pissed. No, I’m livid and totally annoyed. If there’s anything in a corporation that annoys me the most it’s MISCOMMUNICATION and I fear that’s exactly what’s happening here. All I can do is sit here and breathe deep and visualize everything falling into place very soon. It’s hard to do with dozens of patients, nurses and doctors all yapping around busily behind me. But I’m about to grab my headphones and escape into my iPod. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll throw something (probably my iPod) across the room to relieve my frustration.

Stay tuned…