25 October 2023
Today started worse than yesterday. I was weaker, more tired, and simply felt worse. Fortunately, they scheduled me for a hydration today at 11 am. Joel was going to pick me up at 10:15 but he actually arrived before 10. He needed to be somewhere later so I suggested we go ahead. We made it to the cancer center by 10:15 am. I figured I would have a 45 minute wait but the Tootsie Rolls paid off – they took me in almost immediately.
Nancy is my first time nurse and technology confuses her. She couldn’t print the labels for the blood draw and had to have someone do it for her. Every time she has to regulate the pumping device, it baffles her. She started me on saline with phosphate (unbeknownst to me) and when the blood results came back, she realized the phosphate of my blood was normal so she unhooked me from the saline/phosphate drip and hooked me up to pure saline which means we wasted about 20 minutes of drip time. Also, unlike one nurse, she didn’t drag the IV tubing across the floor! As it is, it’ll take two hours from now which puts me out of here around 2 or 2:30 pm. At least Joel will have time to take care of his errands before he picks me up.
Mia, the dietician stopped by and in discussion with her, I brought up acupuncture which Dr. Velez recommended. She’s a big advocate and provided me a list of Acupuncture/Massages services provided by Holy Cross. I didn’t tell her that Dr. Velez recommended a person at Hollywood Memorial.
I’m not sure insurance will cover acupuncture but the prices Holy Cross quotes on their information sheet are reasonable. For staff evaluation and first treatment they charge $155. Additional treatments are $95 for 60 minutes and $65 for 30 minutes. That’s doable. I plan to contact the one at Hollywood first and check with her on her rates and see if Medicare covers any of it and then, if I don’t go with her, I’ll do the Holy Cross one.
Dr. Velez briefly stopped by and asked how I was doing. When I told him worse than yesterday, he said this would be the last week I would be this way. I asked about keeping the already scheduled hydration on Friday, he said yes, the more the better.
My blood tests came back as usual but my magnesium levels were 1.2, the lowest they’ve ever been so I’ll get the full 2 grams today, as usual.
Stay tuned!
