(Nurse) Friend for a day

Well, actually, she was only my friend for about an hour and a half, but she made my bimonthly therapeutic phlebotomy as pleasant as can be yesterday at Baystate Health, where we chatted away the time about this and that and touched on such important topics as my nurse Lynn having the same name as my mother, only spelled differently.

It was much better in the new location in a hospital setting as opposed to where it was formerly done in the blood donor center.

My nurse, Lynn Schwartz, and me

I had a bed and a nice nurse to sit with me, and although this is not a good photo of me, I am posting the selfie for fun.

(Note to grammar checkers: I double checked the most common use of bimonthly and it is every two months, although it can also but less often mean twice a month.)

I always felt out of place in the blood donor center, where through no fault of my own I am dumping blood rather than donating it like the good souls in the other chairs.

Plus, the nurses who I dealt with yesterday understood where I am coming from and took the time to reassure me by giving me a second finger stick when I was not happy with the hemoglobin count from the first one.

To back up: One time when I went to the donor center for this procedure, my hemoglobin measured 11. My orders from Dana-Farber required it to be 11.3 or above, so they said they couldn't do it. Also they seemed to forget why I was there, because the phlebotomist, when seeing the low level, said, "Good news, you don't have to be drawn."

I had carved out a chunk of my day to do this, and I asked if they would please recheck it because previously this had happened at the Kraft Blood Center at Dana-Farber and when they rechecked after I warmed up my hands, it was fine.

The phlebotomist made a big production, calling in her supervisor and even paging a doctor, who all said it was a good stick and they saw no reason to take the seconds needed to try again.

Yesterday the finger stick showed 11.4. It was high enough to draw, but although I know realistically that after six years I am safe, an aberration can still put me into a reflexive panic mode. Just a few weeks ago my tests at Dana-Farber showed a normal level, (12-something, in the low normal range of 12 to 15.5, but normal is normal) and I wondered how it could drop so quickly.

The nurse who had tested it yesterday let me run my other hand under hot water and sit on it for a minute or two, and viola`, "You'll be much happier this time," she said, because it read 12.2.

I could have had an extra-strength day by taking the Exjade in the morning, but I treated myself to a day off.

Lynn said to take it easy for the next 48 hours. I wondered if maybe I could just go Pilates today because that it not too strenuous. She said that actually it is, and I said, oh yes, the hundred...

Struggling to stay awake at the end of my short drive home from Springfield, I pulled into the Big Y parking lot in South Hadley to take a nap.

This morning, a cup of coffee and a piece of orange almond cake at the Thirsty Mind while writing a piece for the Vassar Quarterly helped pick me up. Twice around the lake and a walk through campus with Maddie and a friend saved me from following up on my notion that I should at least go to the pool.

It it's not one thing...Part Two

Yesterday I had a toothache, so I went to the dentist.

He said the tooth in question is decayed beyond repair. This happened quickly due to the same reason that four other teeth needed to be removed: Immune suppression during chemotherapy and from prednisone use now.

I am not a candidate for implants. "How am I going to chew?" I asked my dentist. "You'll be able to chew a steak, as long as it's a good one," he said.

He said it should come out as soon as possible, but the first available slot it Sept. 30.

I was talking to a friend about this and I asked her if we'll still be friends when I am toothless and homeless. OK, so I'm prone to exaggeration.

I am also wondering if a certain friend is slinking down in his chair when he reads this. When he took me the last time, I had taken two Ativan as instructed. Afterwards, my mouth stuffed with cotton, I insisted that we go out for coffee and visit his mother. He got me home only be promising to get me coffee when we got there. It was a moot point, because I conked out.

Removal of the other two teeth was an adventure also. I got those pulled in Boston at Brigham and Women's because my platelets were too low for comfort and I needed to first get a transfusion at Dana-Farber. I always take Benadryl with platelets to head off an allergic reaction. On top of that, I took two Ativan. I was so loopy that my sister practically had to drag me over to the Brigham.

During the extraction, I could barely keep my mouth open. The surgeon said I was a hoot.

Luckily, my platelets are over 100 now.

Upstairs downstairs

Q: Why do wild turkeys cross the road?
A: They are just strolling around Boston, looking for peanut shells, trash and whatever else they can find to eat.

I began to wonder about this Monday when I was driving to my appointment at Dana-Farber and four turkeys crossed in front of me, right in downtown Boston, causing me to stop short in traffic. The first one saw me coming and turned around, but three were oblivious and kept going, so the first one joined them.

Luckily the driver behind me stopped soon enough that he did not rear-end me. The turkeys took their time getting to the other side, and, puzzled at the sighting, I took the next turn to Dana-Farber. This naturally took my mind off the usual check-up anxiety.

I googled "why do turkeys live in downtown Boston?" and sure enough there was a story in Boston.com about turkeys having gotten used to residential and urban living in the past few years. Who knew?

Anyway, I got to Dana-Farber without hitting any turkeys.

After getting my blood drawn, I went to the 11th floor and got my tongue checked by the doctor who had removed a small scoop of it. She gave my mouth a clean bill of health.

I went down to the eighth floor for my appointment with Melissa, who was running late, so it was back to the 11th floor for my flu shot, then back down to the eighth. I was getting used to the elevators.

Everything was good. First of all, I gained seven pounds in a month. If you're just stopping by the blog, I need to say that is a good thing. People are not usually happy about gaining weight, but in my case that was the goal since I had lost about 15 pounds in four months.

My hematocrit was normal (35.6) for the first time in ages, earning me the opportunity, if it stays normal, to have a "blood letting" (sans leaches) next time to lower my ferritin. I'm not sure what the technical term is. I take a nauseating medicine called Exjade every morning, and the level – which is high from all the transfusions I got – has gone down some, but it is still way above normal.

I was happy to see that my platelets had inched up to 95 (normal is 155-410), which is still low but high for me.

In my body's topsy turvy way, my potassium level has been high; many people eat potassium-rich foods and drink potassium-rich beverages so they can get enough potassium. I take another potion to lower it and keep in with normal range. It was a little high, possibly due to too many tomatoes over the summer and fall.

Due to still-elevated though steady liver enzymes, I need to stay on prednisone. It's a low dose, 5 mgs a day, but still, it would be nice to get off.

I stayed over at Diane and David's so I could see my dermatologist, Dr. Lin, in the morning. She said my skin had cleared up well after the PDT (face fry) and suggested we keep ahead of the game and do another one in six months before little scaly things appear again.

Lucky me!