Yesterday, the PICC line got put in, so it’s safe to say that it was a Big Day. Oh, and it was also Dick and my 7th wedding anniversary, so that made it a Big Day x 2! I’m guessing that seven years ago, neither one of us thought that we would ever have a wedding anniversary like this!

Before I get into the nuts and bolts of yesterday, I need to explain a bit about the Filgrastim shot. Filgrastim is used to help pull the stem cells from the bone marrow. We get these shots twice a day for a week leading up to the harvest. Some people experience nothing or slight bone aches or really bad pain. One of the patients from Group 3 asked if I had had any bone pain. I had not. He then proceeded to tell us that it had gotten really bad for him in the last few days. His analogy was, and I’ll quote ‘you know when you break a bone and then the bone kind of (at this point he takes his hands and makes a kind of grinding motion)? Well, that’s how it feels.’ Then he looks at me and says, ‘some of the women that I’ve talked to compare it to child birth, so, you know.’ After I was able to breathe again from these descriptions, I told him that I actually don’t know! I was super thankful to not have experienced any pain like this! We got back to our apartment and Dick states, ‘you are doing great and haven’t had pain like this.’ In case you can’t guess where this is going, Karma is about to enter the room! Around 3:00am, I got some pretty epic pain in my lower back. Not, bone breaking pain, but sleep was definitely off the table. It was also bad enough that walking was a challenge, and by 6:00am, Dick was back to bathing me!

The PICC line had to be put in at the hospital. It was done under general anesthesia. I had to start fasting after midnight. This is not a big deal as I don’t think I’ve eaten after midnight since college! The problem is that I do usually put something on my stomach shortly after getting up. I’m not a coffee drinker but I’ll eat a piece of toast or some oatmeal or something! The nurses came to the apartment at 7:00am and gave me the Filgrastim shot. I had started dry heaving in the shower, but the wave of nausea finally subsided. At 7:30am, Ana and I, along with the rest of our group, loaded into the van and headed to the hospital. Dick could not come as COVID protocol is extremely tight at the hospital. One caregiver only! I got situated in the room and headed to the bathroom where I promptly threw up any medication that I had been given. Throwing up seems to be a recurring theme for me since arriving in MX and I don’t like it one bit! Ana took the above picture on my way to the OR. I was nervous but the procedure went quick and I was back in the room in about 20 minutes. I ate some Jell-O and drank some chamomile tea. My stomach was still a bit queasy, but I’m pretty sure that was from having no food for so long.

We got back to the apartment around 1:30. I was pretty white and pretty sick feeling. I snacked on some Saltines and ate a bowl of chicken and rice soup (all homemade and all wonderful!). I then slept until around 7:00pm. I don’t think that I went to bed until midnight. My sweating was back to uncontrollable! I finally gave up and just went to the couch! Even though we keep the bedroom door open, for some reason the air is always a bit cooler in the living room area. Today is the day of the actual harvest! As I’m writing, I’m waiting for the nurse to come take some blood. We head over to another clinic for the harvest at 9:00. Dick and Ana will both be there and will be taking lots of pictures.

You know how you always have to let your doctor know if you have any allergies to medications or silicone, etc? I’ve decided to add fasting to my allergy list. I am allergic to fasting.

TL, DR I got my PICC line put in yesterday and I’m allergic to fasting.