Connie had her first chemo yesterday. And I think they almost killed her. Apparently she had a reaction to Taxol (I think that is it) and started going down for the count. She called out for help, but no one was monitoring her right at that time (they made me leave the room, so I went home). They have music playing in this rather large "infusion room", and it is rather loud. Loud enough that to talk to someone, you really have to lean towards them to hear them speaking. So when Connie felt things falling apart, she just could not be heard over the music as the central nurse's station was too far away. Damn lucky there was another couple having treatment not too far away. Too far to hear Connie (damned mask prevented them from seeing her lips saying "HELP!", but close enough to see her in obvious distress. Connie was able to gesture with her hands and they then got the attention of the nurse attending to them. Connie must have blacked out because next thing she knew she was surrounded by nurses and doctors and was all hooked up to machines monitoring her vitals while they were pumping something into her.
When we got home and Connie told me about it, I about went ballistic and fired off a message to them reading them the riot act. I got a phone call REAL soon afterwards, as apparently my message went all the way up the ladder to upper management. The girl I talked to said they are going to have a meeting to change some of the things I brought up. But I was still livid. For a first time patient on those drugs, Connie should have been monitored closely and continually. And why don't they have some sort of sensitivity test they can administer to check for a reaction before pumping that crap into her veins? And turn that damned music DOWN? The selection is good, but way too loud for normal talking, much less when a patient is whimpering in distress for help. And why don't those stations have a call button fo the patient to alert staff that there is a problem? And lastly, they are going to have a VERY tough time getting me to leave Connie alone during the next treatment. So I may be in jail in 3 weeks when the next treatment is due.
So Connie was really bummed out about the above this morning and we both broke down a bit. She was feeling that no one gave a crap, and that she almost died yesterday, and no one would have even noticed till it was too late. Well, honestly, we both broke down a LOT.
One tiny little silver lining in that huge dark cloud is that I was finally able to motivate someone who was able to break up the logjam on the anti-nausea drugs that Connie has been prescribed. She had a list of 5 or 6 and only was able to get 2 of them filled. They were ping ponging the excuse that it was the insurance company at fault, needing a pre-authorization or something. Well dammit, THIS sort of thing is exactly why people have health insurance. And the health insurance companies sell you this bill of goods claiming you need to be prepared for the worst. Well, DAMMIT, the worst is taking place RIGHT NOW! So make it SO! I was about ready to contact my insurance company (Capital Health Plan) and really lay into them too, right after my message sent to the oncology center. Man, I was REALLY hot! One good thing of note is that anger seems to dissipate anguish. At least for me So I am going to try to be angry a lot, I guess.
Another good thing is that except for some minor swelling, Connie doesn't have any symptoms from the chemo treatment yesterday. Of course, she didn't get the full menu she was supposed to, but still... Man I hope she pulls through this with only minor side effects. She is using something called DigniCap to try to keep as much hair as possible from falling out. Works by basically chilling down the scalp so that the chemo drugs don't kill off the hair roots so much. Probably just a sales gimmick and money maker for the facility, but no way I was going to deny her even the slightest chance of that working for her.
Hope I have something to direct anger at tomorrow. Oh yeah, I might. I decided to go ahead and swallow my pride and sign up for Amazon's Prime membership. So I did and placed several orders for things that I thought Connie would need to help her be more comfortable. They were all shipped really quickly, but damn, for some reason, every single order got shipped out via USPS. And every one is sitting at the post office stating "awaiting pickup". I've been having USPS deliver packages before, even though we don't have a mailbox up. Or they would put the packages in a parcel locker I could pick up after hours. But this seems to be different. Is this just the way that Amazon Prime works? I actually contacted someone and they said they would take care of it so my orders would ship ONLY via UPS and FedEx Ground. So I decided to place another order to test it out. Yeah, right. Again shipped via USPS. So, to hell with it. I cancelled my Prime membership. With Connie going through chemo, I really don't want to be going out much and run the risk of bringing COVID home with me. Or any other pathogens, for that matter. So this just really pissed me off.
OK, got my anger dosage all lined up for tomorrow.
