Live from the Chemo Barn! Part III

My last drip just started and this one takes 30 minutes, so it looks like we'll be headed home around 1:30.

Bryan arrived with lunch, a McDonald's Southwestern salad with grilled chicken. I pick the cheese off because I can't eat lactose anymore. Pretty tasty. Surprisingly healthy. And here is where I might make a note about the dietary changes I've made in preparation for chemo and, in the case of lactose, because of it:

1. No lactose. Boy, does that stuff mess things up. . .

2. All whole grains, no white flour. I'd suspected for a while that my GI track was not very happy with white flour over the last 2 years or so, and the advent of chemo gave me a good reason to finally be done with it. That is, I figured with all the drugs my body would have to process, I might do what I could not to dump other hard-to-process stuff in.

3. No white sugar. The refined sugar, we already knew I couldn't eat. But my GI track has been very unhappy with even organic sugar since chemo started.

4. All I drink is water, Gatorade during chemo week and maybe twice a month, a coffee.

--Uh Oh, a very unhappy patient behind me. He's yelling at the tech about a port draw he's here for. She doesn't have any orders for it. He wants it done. And he's pissed off about it. 'Threatening' to go "to the other place!" (other cancer center?) because "this place is so screwed up!"

Do we have time to do a blog poll with the following question: Should I turn around and tell him to pipe down?

No, we don't have time. It'd be a bad idea. Besides, Nurse Ginny is now on it. He's now standing up at the desk, re-explaining his case. Seems a bit calmer, maybe because he has the attention of 3 people now, and so he feels tended to.

I understand his frustration. Still. It's not the tech's fault.--

Anyway. Dietary changes. Yep. Aside from the cancer cells that are presumed to be floating around my body, I am the healthiest I've been since before Gemma was born and we moved to Korea. By the end of this cancer thing, I'm going to be in the best condition of my life!

--Well, looks like the lab from 'the other place' didn't send a lab order in for this guy. Here's the thing: I've found the administrative help at this center to be mediocre at best on my own behalf. So I wouldn't be shocked if there was an admin mistake of some sort regarding his lab orders. Poor tech.

He's gone now. Sent on his way.

And we'll soon be on ours! What a pleasant morning it's been! I hope you enjoyed your stay at the virtual chemo barn with me. (Bet you never thought you'd read that particular sentence.)

From my computer screen to yours: Wish you were here!