Needles!

If you have been following this blog, you may have noticed that I had been keeping a count on needles. I stopped after I had 100 needles, back in August. One reason was because I changed the program that I use to make blog entries and it isn't as good at labels. The other reason is that 100 needles in 8 months felt depressing and
I wasn't too sure that I wanted to keep track.

When I am in the hospital, I have my vitals checked a few times a day. The hospital has a policy that when I run a fever, the nurse takes blood from two different sites to check for infection. The nurse finds a vein and then fills 2 bottles with my blood. Then the nurse finds another spot and fills another 2 bottles. Nurses can only take blood from my right arm. My left arm is "protected" because the lumpectomy, back in July, included the removal of lymph nodes which puts me at risk for lymphedema, a condition where my arm would swell up.

I have been running a fever almost daily for at least 2 months now. When i first had the fever, I was in the hospital and nurses attempted to take blood from 2 sites on my arm daily. Eventually my doctors told me the fever is my body's reaction to the cancer.

This week in the hospital, I have been caught with a fever 5 or 6 times. Each time, the nurse needed a few tries to get blood. Tonight, for example, my nurse's first attempt failed when my blood didn't really flow, despite the needle in the vein. He got another nurse to help. Her first attempt failed when my vein just wouldn't hold still. Her next attempt was in my wrist and luckily the blood flowed well. Because of how difficult it was to get the blood, the nurses didn't try for a second site.

Tonight was pretty typical in terms of attempts. So, 3 needles multiplied by 5 nights is fifteen needles for blood cultures. Add to that my 2 blood thinner shots a day for the last 10 days and I have had 25 shots during this hospital stay. Sometimes these things get a little ridiculous.