Update on oggbashan's health

[oggbashan]

Had third and last (of this set) chemotherapy today. Apart from the nurse finding it difficult to locate a vein (I have good veins but not close to skin surface) to insert a cannula - the procedure was just four hours of boredom.

The nurse eventually used an ultrasound machine designed to find veins. I had plenty of good condition ones but not visible on the surface. The machine was able to show her the needle going in the right place.

On the two previous visits none of the nurses had been trained to use ultrasound. The first one took four attempts; the second three.

My blood result from last Thursday showed an improvement from 0.8 - too low to 2.4. Anything above 2.0 is OK. My other blood indicators were and are good.

 

[KeithD]

Thanks for the update. Keep keeping up.

 

[Polranny]

Had third and last (of this set) chemotherapy today. Apart from the nurse finding it difficult to locate a vein (I have good veins but not close to skin surface) to insert a cannula - the procedure was just four hours of boredom.

The nurse eventually used an ultrasound machine designed to find veins. I had plenty of good condition ones but not visible on the surface. The machine was able to show her the needle going in the right place.

On the two previous visits none of the nurses had been trained to use ultrasound. The first one took four attempts; the second three.

My blood result from last Thursday showed an improvement from 0.8 - too low to 2.4. Anything above 2.0 is OK. My other blood indicators were and are good.

Ultrasound is great for locating veins: I had a neuroma between two toes. A targeted cortisone jab sorted it in an instant having been agony for a year.
Continue to improve.

 

[oggbashan]

Ultrasound is great for locating veins: I had a neuroma between two toes. A targeted cortisone jab sorted it in an instant having been agony for a year.
Continue to improve.

Many people who have chemotherapy have compromised veins. Apart from where I gave blood for forty years all my veins are in good shape. Where I gave blood has significant scarring but they still work well.

 

[oggbashan]

An aside: On my first visit I was given a wristband with my name and NHS number on it. I am supposed to bring it every time I visit but it only sticks once.

I didn't bring it this time. They are supposed to give me another but:

1. They check my name and date of birth before doing anything.

2. I am the largest (and hairest!) patient they have.

3. I am the only one who comes with a four wheeled walker.

4. I am the only person in the county who has Lambert-Eaton Syndrome and the only one they have ever had with it.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Hang in, Ogg! God bless.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

An aside: On my first visit I was given a wristband with my name and NHS number on it. I am supposed to bring it every time I visit but it only sticks once.

I didn't bring it this time. They are supposed to give me another but:

1. They check my name and date of birth before doing anything.

In the US the organization that accredits hospitals has a "national patient safety goal" to reduce inadvertently doing the wrong thing to the wrong person, and double checking name and birth date is one of the ways to say the nurse has checked two forms of identification. Even when they know you. Or maybe, especially when they know you, just to keep from getting too complacent.

I'm glad they figured out a less onerous way to get to your veins. If the chemo keeps helping and they recommend continuing it, could you get a port put in, so the don't have to keep sticking you?

 

[Hypoxia]

In the US the organization that accredits hospitals has a "national patient safety goal" to reduce inadvertently doing the wrong thing to the wrong person, and double checking name and birth date is one of the ways to say the nurse has checked two forms of identification.

This helps prevent amputating a wrong limb or lasering a wrong eye. It works for me. The pharmacist also asks my DOB no matter how boring the pills are.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

This helps prevent amputating a wrong limb or lasering a wrong eye. It works for me. The pharmacist also asks my DOB no matter how boring the pills are.

Yeah.
They list the national patient safety goals on the back of the bathroom stall door. So you can read them while you're, you know. I've, therefore, read them several dozen times...
Under the identification one they delineate marking a limb to be operated on with the doctor's initials or the patient's initiials. It actually says "for dental procedures, another method of identifying the correct area must be developed"

 

[Handley_Page]

Yeah.
.
Under the identification one they delineate marking a limb to be operated on with the doctor's initials or the patient's initiials. It actually says "for dental procedures, another method of identifying the correct area must be developed"

My local pharmacy insists upon my reminding them of my address - every time I collect my meds.
As to dental procedures; I wonder if paint would work ?

 

[BelleCanzuto]

My local pharmacy insists upon my reminding them of my address - every time I collect my meds.
As to dental procedures; I wonder if paint would work ?

Re dental procedures: I don't know, and I've never been brave enough to ask...

 

[oggbashan]

There were four sets of chemicals for my chemotherapy.

Even though I was sitting in the same chair, attached to a drip, they asked me for my name, date of birth and address before each change, and checked my name on the bag.

 

[KeithD]

There were four sets of chemicals for my chemotherapy.

Even though I was sitting in the same chair, attached to a drip, they asked me for my name, date of birth and address before each change, and checked my name on the bag.

Well, yes, they are being very careful--because people have died from not being careful in the past--and they are following hospital procedures put in place because people had died and they were sued when they weren't being this careful.

 

[TxRad]

Well, yes, they are being very careful--because people have died from not being careful in the past--and they are following hospital procedures put in place because people had died and they were sued when they weren't being this careful.

They also suspect that Ogg is a shape changing alien and don't want to get his lunch order wrong.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

They also suspect that Ogg is a shape changing alien and don't want to get his lunch order wrong.

Yup. It's this, truthfully. Because ham on rye Ogg is a *much* scarier proposition than turkey on wheat Ogg.
(or so the myths inform us)

 

[Voboy]

Well, yes, they are being very careful--because people have died from not being careful in the past--and they are following hospital procedures put in place because people had died and they were sued when they weren't being this careful.

I read an article just today about a guy who got a kidney transplant... the wrong guy.

He had the same name and the same approximate age as another guy on the transplant list (both needed kidneys). So they cut him open, rearranged the plumbing, and only figured out THE NEXT DAY that it was the wrong patient; the guy who was supposed to get the kidney was top of the list, the other guy was like 51st.

Needless to say, they scrambled for a new kidney. Fortunately, they found one and now both patients are doing okay. But if I was the family of whomever was 50th or 49th on the list, or 2nd, I'd be extremely peeved.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Well, yes, they are being very careful--because people have died from not being careful in the past--and they are following hospital procedures put in place because people had died and they were sued when they weren't being this careful.

As the saying goes, "Every warning sign has a story behind it".

 

[oggbashan]

Not a good day. I fell over twice in the night going to the toilet and my eyesight has been worse today.

It might be reaction to Monday's chemo.

 

[SimonDoom]

Not a good day. I fell over twice in the night going to the toilet and my eyesight has been worse today.

It might be reaction to Monday's chemo.

Take it easy!

Happy Thanksgiving to you, from this side of the pond.

 

[JamesMiehoff]

It may be annoying, but just be glad they keep asking to verify who you are.

Had a coworker that slipped on some ice and broke his leg in four places. They had him in a semi-private room when his roommate went into cardiac arrest. They moved him out so they could try to save his roommate. 4 am the next morning, they woke him up and started washing his chest up. He asked "What's up?" The nurse said they were prepping him for his gall bladder removal. He screamed. The nurse finally looked at his wristband and said, "You're not Mr. X!!!"

After an hour of screaming and yelling, it turned out Mr. X checked himself out the day before and went home. When they put Bob in the room nobody updated the charts. If he hadn't asked, he would have gone home with 5 pins in his leg and no gall bladder.

So just be glad they care enough to ask, even if it's their asses they are covering.

Keep hanging in there Ogg.

James

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Saw this the other day. I know there ain't much I can say to change shit, and I'm not super active... but you've been one of my favorite posters, and seemingly sane. It's funny how in a way you get to know people, even though we don't actually know each other. It's odd losing, or possibly losing a longstanding member of a message board. I remember the first one years ago on a local board. I don't have much words to say but a lil praise. That and for you not to die until I publish a book, so you might want to go looking for a lazurus pit. Consequently; I suggest writing something meaningful. We don't know who you actually are, or what standings you have in real life, but some important last words for people to take in, help hold a memory. I don't think I'm going to go anytime soon, and I have written such things and one or two suicide notes, just in case. It's just something I feel is paramount. Like when my stepdad died this Janurary, of colon cancer, the only last recorded words from him was from a video abkut three years ago, my stepbrother took and posted on youtube. I accept death for what it is, people go when they're supposex to, contrary to popular belief, but his shook me. I'd hate to see you go, though.

I understand as long as I have been here, my infrequent appearance, might not make my words bare too much wieght, but I figured I'd say something... even if I couldn't string together something nice.

 

[oggbashan]

Limited Horizons...

Thanks for the support in this thread. Unlike Clive James, recently died after ten years of palliative care, I won't have that long. What I have is small cell lung cancer - the most aggressive kind and very difficult to delay and impossible to stop.

What has been irritating me slightly is my inability to travel far. When I could still drive, and I can't now because of double vision, I could drive 200 to 250 miles a day. My wife can only drive 50 miles a day which means I can't be taken to visit daughter in London or go to France.

Walking is also limited. With a stick 50 yards is my safe limit. With my 4-wheeled walker I can do a maximum of one mile a day and the nearest shops are half a mile away. There and back is a real effort and that is it for the day. Today we went to a local museum to donate some items - 50 yards with a stick; then a National Trust place to give them 150 books for their secondhand bookshop plus a two hundred yard walk; another museum (200 yards each way from car park) to give them some more items and a tour of the museum (another 200 yards) plus a visit to a mid-size supermarket (probably another 500 yards including from the disabled parking space).

My wife has driven 55 miles. I have walked more than I should. We are both knackered.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Hullo dahlink


I am just checking in on you. You can imagine I'm doing so in a nurse uniform if you like (Although as you know, I am actually a Dr. )

Here I am in Christmas ornament format.

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks Naoko.

I had a letter yesterday from my GP surgery asking me to book a blood test. This is for an annual review of my Type II diabetes.

But I have had four blood tests in the last three weeks before chemotherapy. My arms are like pin-cushions and I don't want to go to a hospital while my immune system is compromised. Hospitals and GP surgeries are full of people with infections.

My diabetes hasn't got a hope of killing me before the lung cancer so why waste time and effort checking my blood sugar levels - which I do twice daily myself - to find out that chemotherapy has raised them slightly. I know that and I'm not concerned. The diabetes would take years to impact on my quality of life and I haven't got years...

I have written to the surgery querying whether yet another blood test is really necessary.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Thanks Naoko.

I had a letter yesterday from my GP surgery asking me to book a blood test. This is for an annual review of my Type II diabetes.

But I have had four blood tests in the last three weeks before chemotherapy. My arms are like pin-cushions and I don't want to go to a hospital while my immune system is compromised. Hospitals and GP surgeries are full of people with infections.

My diabetes hasn't got a hope of killing me before the lung cancer so why waste time and effort checking my blood sugar levels - which I do twice daily myself - to find out that chemotherapy has raised them slightly. I know that and I'm not concerned. The diabetes would take years to impact on my quality of life and I haven't got years...

I have written to the surgery querying whether yet another blood test is really necessary.

Or maybe they could use some common sense and have them include diabetes tests on the list the next time the oncology team wants blood. One would think that one MD could talk to another...

Hang in, sir.