pincushion day

 I've nearly finished at the hospital after a very stabby few hours, and I am glad to be nearly finished. I know that in the overall scheme of things this is not the worst part of the treatment (just looking for eyebrow wigs for when they use the high-dose chemo in December - I'm fancying a Groucho Marx look) but I will be glad when it is finished.

Today I had conspired somehow to have three separate bookings all at Ipswich hospital for much of the day. I started at 9:00 with the blood sample that I need before tomorrow's chemo session. And I had to make that 9:00 because at 10:15 I had to go the Nuclear Medicine department for a four hour long kidney function test. This involved putting a cannula in my left hand and injecting a weak radioactive trace liquid which circulates in my body so that they can record how fast it is eliminated by my kidneys, but it does mean coming back for three more blood samples after the first cannula. I have one left, sitting in the restaurant with my laptop as I am. And I had to have the first blood sample before the kidney test because the radioactive trace messes up blood tests for about 24 hours. 

So by 10:15 I had two holes in my upper limbs and now I have five (because one of the samples failed and they had to find another vein). I have one more for them to find and that will be it. 

This is one thing that makes me happy that they are going to put in a central line straight into my chest when they do the transplant, because as far as I understand it I shouldn't need many of these one-off vein invasions. The central line stays in for a few weeks so no more stabby stuff there. But with the individual blood samples from veins it is less simple. It is like trying to use a cocktail stick to pick up a lychee, and the veins slip around and don't want to be stabbed. So sometimes it doesn't work, which is a disappointment and a pain in the arse.

Cro did dislike this side of her treatment because it always had the potential to go wrong and that meant looking for another less desirable vein elsewhere. And sometimes if new young doctors are involved it is not their skill set but they feel they have to and sometimes they make a horlicks of it. And sometimes your own nerves can put off an experienced stabber and then they feel bad that they have not hit paydirt first time. The very best practitioners are those who do it all the time. This morning's phlebotomist was great but when I asked she estimated she had taken over 250 samples the previous week. Experience counts. 

Cro also really disliked the phrase 'Sharp Scratch', which is the go-to way of telling you the needle is going in. She disliked it mainly because it is not very accurate. 'Fairly painless puncture wound, but with the option of a bit of extra pain if I hit the other side of your vein' would be accurate but not nice. She disliked the phrase to the point that when a blood-sampler didn't use it, she would donate £10 to a charity of their choice. 

I don't mind the phrasing, and the procedure is normally Ok, but I mainly dislike the fact that it is not as black-and-white as most other procedures, and one in ten seems to go wrong, and then you end up with an extra hole in your skin when you didn't even really want the first one. 

And one thing I have been told about my long-term treatment is that eventually they are going to put me onto a drug that I will inject myself. Better get used to the needles and think of what I will say to myself as I plunge the spike in. All suggestions accepted.