Chemo Monday

We are home after a looong day at the Cancer Center.
There was issues with her port that caused some major delays. It had begun having problems a few weeks ago (when we had that short hospital stay) and today it decided it just didn't want to have blood drawn from it. The chemo nurse (Melanie, we love her) tried and tried but it just wasn't going to budge. She said sometime this happens, where a sort of scab forms over the port (under the skin) and it flushes (stuff goes in) fine but doesn't really have good blood return. She said she would push some medicine through and let it sit for a while and that would break it up so hopefully we wouldn't have this issue. But, there's always a but, that means that we couldn't draw from it today. So she went to get the little lab tech to draw blood from her arm.
And now a little back story> Last week when we walked into the cancer center the little lab girl came and got us and told us that she would have her blood drawn first. When I questioned her, since she would getting accessed, she told me that there was a test ordered that couldn't be done off the port (fibrinogen). I went along with it. She stuck her once and fished around and ended up with nothing. A few red flags went up in my mind. She went and spoke to our nurse (Dr, T's nurse, Cheryl) and then came back and took us to the infusion center where she was accessed blood drawn (a little sluggish) and no fibrinogen needed to be done.
Fast forward to today. Same little lab girl. Do you see where this was going? She stuck in her in the arm, fished, got nothing. I did a really good job staying calm. Then she suggested a finger stick. Before I could protest Melanie said, "um, no." So little lab girl said heel stick. To which I said, "ok." But in my mind I really said, "Um, that's not going to work." Longish story shorter I was right. When she was getting nothing from her heal I asked what the next plan was. Little lab girl said, "We could have Cheryl draw from her head." Again before I had time to protest Melanie (really like her) said, "Um, no." She told me later she had to stop herself from swearing at her. In the midst of this I asked for the tourniquet to see if I could find anything. I did struggle to find a good vein in her right arm but after little lab girl left I started feeling her other arm (the one she stuck and fished around in) and found a juicy vein WITHOUT a tourniquet. Melanie then left and came back with her arm full of flushes determined this time to get blood out of her port. And she did! What an ordeal.
After that she put the scab-busting medicine but it had to sit for a while. Then after all that she could start the chemo.
I was sure to share with Cheryl my feelings on the situation. You're working at a cancer center, a place where not so healthy people come with their not so healthy veins, you should be able to draw blood on anything. She completely agreed. And then when the doctor came in and I told her. She was, in a word, ticked. She told Cheryl to right a report. I typically don't like to tattle and I have, in every other aspect, had really good experiences there, but this was just unacceptable.
Throughout the whole thing Mary really was a champ.
We brought Ruth along with us. I tried to prepare her for all the waiting but she still had a few issues with it. Once they turned on the Wii she was set. She even got Mary dancing with her on the Just Dance game. It's one of her favorite songs (they danced to it a lot in preschool) and when I find her enjoying something from BC (before cancer) I soak it up as much as possible. I took a video because it was the cutest thing ever and I thought you would need a little something to brighten your day.

You're most welcome.