So I got a couple day reprieve from the infusion and they took out my PIC line yesterday. If the nurse heard my “Moooo” quote, she didn’t think it was funny enough to acknowledge, but I laughed for her.
It’s turning out that the secondary wound on my back is getting up there in size. In fact it’s bigger than the first one when it was just opened. The Nurse Practicioner, Julie, is worried enough about it she said yesterday was my last infusion and that I wouldn’t begin getting the shots till the 20th or so to give the wound a chance to heal. I’m glad for the break, but really don’t want to extend the ordeal any.
We also found out that to give myself the shots at home is going to cost me $1300 out of pocket just for the medicine before the insurance picks up the whole tab. On the other hand, if I go in to the hospital every day and have a nurse give me the shot I won’t have to pay anything… sort of. The insurance says I need to pay a $20 co pay for going in to get the shots, Julie told them they don’t even bill me for the nurse visit if I go in, so why should the insurance get a co-pay if there is no billing. Seems sensible to me. And to boil it down, why should I have to pay more for the exact same thing at all? This is only the cost of the medicine we’re talking about, having someone else administer it, maybe I could see an extra charge. But paying over a thousand dollars just for the ability to take it home and give it to myself at a reasonable hour?
I think the health care profession has some sort of silly bylaw that says they need to continually make you feel surprised at stupidity.

I’ve got to remember that when they pull out my PIC line I need to say, “The cow goes…. Mooooo!”

So I made a big post last weekend about how infusion was going (rough) and how I’d met some people (nice) and some of them had been kind enough (Mitch and Christine Eyre) to take some pictures of me so I can document the infusion. But because of the state of mind from the infusion (mushy) I forgot to save it and don’t quite have the heart to recreate it. But I do wan’t to post the pictures.

Mitch Eyre and me enjoying our chemical morning.

I got my first Interferon infusion today. They put the PIC line in about nine o’clock this morning. They put it in my right arm midway up my bicep and it runs somewhere into my chestal regions. They told me that it had a chance of going up into my head, and they didn’t want that, so they had me tip my chin down to my right shoulder to help it get to the right place. They injected some saline and said to see if I could feel where it was. Instantly my ear felt like it was full of a rushing noise and there was this weird vibration in my neck. I went “Wahhhh!” in my best Monty Python voice and they stopped and pulled it partway out and tried again. The second time was the charm, I guess because they went ahead with the infusion after an x-ray showed them I was all set. It was all fairly downhill from then and, except for the pain from the PIC insertion point I felt pretty good, but tired. We came home and I had the home health nurse coming to check my vac-less wound. They removed the vac on the day after Christmas. I meant to write about it, along with so many other things, but never seem to find the time. I did manage to find the time to install the free preview client of World of Warcraft Saturday night, but that’s another sad story in itself.
Anyway, after the nurse saw me I was pretty punked out (which was what they told me to expect, so I took a little nap and woke up with chills and aches. I had a 100.5 fever, exactly the temperature they told me to expect, so I took some more Tylenol and Indomethacin (which totally works like a wonder) and went back to feeling pretty good. Anyway, one down four more weeks (less one day) to go.

Picture warning — don’t click on the link if you have a weak stomach.
So I got the vacuum changed Yesterday afternoon. The home healthcare nurse says it’s healing pretty quick, and if the tongue-textured section in that pic is any indication, maybe the doctor was right and I’ll be better (and ready for chemo) by Christmas. Yay. I hurt really bad today, though, and had a really hard time sleeping. I’d been off the pain pills (mostly) since before Halloween, but they’re making a reappearance in this second act.