Finally feeling Low

Today the effects of the Melphalan are finally hitting me.  This morning I ordered a very bland breakfast, as I felt like yesterday’s supper had never really left my stomach.  I had burps & hiccups all through the night.  Well, I got about 3/4ths of a small container of cut pears down when my stomach erupted.  I did make it to the bathroom, but just.  Then lots more than the pears came up as well.  Eventually it was dry heaves, which are a treat unto themselves.

Since then all I have had by mouth is a few pills.  They have switched the ciprofloxacin to an intravenous dose, so it won’t get lost in the next eruption.  I kept the breakfast around for a while, as I assumed I would soon feel better, but that has not been the case.  I tried reading, but I kept dosing off, so I just took a series of naps.  The nurse tells me that she can give me anti-nausea medicine when I order supper so that I will feel like eating supper when I get it.

In addition to the nausea, I am generally feeling pretty low.  No specific pains so much as generally blah.  I spend a good deal of today just sleeping, and the decisions to get up and go to the bathroom or to get up and answer email were hard.  Ambition is lacking.  The doctors & nurses have pointed out that I am quite flushed.  A roseate glow, if you want to put it in positive terms.  And then there is the constipation.  I have not performed a bowel movement since Friday just after I arrived.  I have asked for help in that regard, but the doctors all say the Melphalan is certain to lead to diarrhea, so giving me much more than a stool softener (which really doesn’t do very much) is inadvisable.  Once the runs start, they will be difficult to control, they say.  I am taking their advice, in spite of a bad experience with constipation over the summer.

I can see the wind and the rain out my window, but little affects life here inside the cocoon.  Some of the staff may have to stay here overnight, as the MBTA shut down at 2PM.  If there is a general power loss, the hospital does have emergency generators, but not all the circuits are hooked up to the emergency power.  Some of the reading lights may go, but everything essential will carry on.

Meanwhile, Barbie took some pictures of the process yesterday.  Here is Barbie in gloves and a mask.  Quite the glamour girl:

Here is the nurse hooking me up to the Melphalan.  Note the hazmat suit she is wearing, in case some should spill.  Clearly nasty stuff.  Especially for women of childbearing age, which the nurses here are:


Here I am peacefully displaying Tom Jones as the poison drips into my system:

Finally here is the nurse, again in a hazmat suit, disconnecting the Melphalan.  The infusion does not take long, less than a half hour.  But clearly it packs a wallop:

Meanwhile the anti-nausea medicine has had the desired effect.  I have been able to keep down my dinner of chicken noodle soup and macaroni & cheese.  Whether that holds true for the rest of the night remains to be seen, as things are still rumbling down there.