So I went in to the doctor today to begin the steroid treatment for my anhidrosis (See "No Sweat, No Problem", and "Stubborn or Stupid"). I happened to run into someone who reads my blog there in the waiting room. I'll call her T-. T- told me I'm funny.
Cool, that's what I'm going for. Thanks T-! You made me feel like I had a fan! You da bomb!
Anyway. I went in and sat in the chair so they could set me up with a hep-lock and run the IV line. It took a little bit. The girl who was working on me is learning. She missed one vein and when she tried to push saline through the line to clear it, it didn't go into a vein. It started to blow up the back of my hand like a water balloon. I was on the way to having Mickey Mouse hands. Funny, but not what we were going for.
It took her some time to place a new line, but she got it. I'm a little squeamish, so I don't look. I just look away or close my eyes and go to my Happy Place.
Said 'Happy Place' is really anywhere they are not sticking a thingie into the vein in my hand. Yuck!
So there I am, hep-lock and IV in place, and the steroids are starting to drip into me. Huzzah, right?
Wrong.
I had a...reaction... to the medication. Now it may have simply been a reaction to having a thingie in my vein. I told you, I'm a little squeamish. When I went for the blood draw for my marriage license I went a little white and had to lie down. I was better in a couple of minutes, and I went on my way.
Not today.
I started feeling a little nauseous. I mentioned it, and they asked if I was going to be okay. I replied that I did not know. It started getting worse, and I asked if there was a bucket or anything I could hold on to. They gave me the trash can from the corner of the room. It had a spring-loaded lid on it, so I was still concerned that I might make someone have to clean far more of the room that they had intended, but it was what they gave me. I lost my color (what little of it I have), got dizzy and short of breath.
Eventually, they stopped the steroid drip and went to get J-, the more experienced nurse the girl is learning under. She started to do things like take my blood pressure, get me a drink of water, elevate my feet and recline my chair so I could relax more. She decided I may have been a little dehydrated, and started a saline drip, a fast one.
So, there I was, lying on my back with the saline dripping, my eyes closed, just taking deep breaths and concentrating on not proving to one and all that yes, I did have lunch that day. The saline started to work, and I started to feel like I was not going to audition for that Exorcist re-make, and I opened my eyes. I started to giggle, which made the people in the room look at each-other in concern.
"No, don't worry," I said. "I'm not delirious." I went on to explain why I was still chuckling.
When I slowly opened my eyes, here is what I saw. A white tile acoustical ceiling. Two flourescent light panels. A ring of three faces with concerned expressions looking down on me, with an IV bag taking up the fourth spot in the circle.
My very first thought was My God, it's just like on TV! Where's House? [Dr. House, from the TV show, "House"]
Thats when I started to giggle.
Okay. Maybe I was a teesnsy bit delirious. Or a whack-job.
The rest of the treatment went well, and I'm going back for the second one tomorrow. I wonder what else I'll do to amuse myself while I'm there...
Talk to you later!
No comments:
Post a Comment