In Focus

For nearly the past year, my infusions were held at a clinic instead of the infusion wing of the hospital.

It wasn’t my favorite place. The dark, windowless rooms were crammed with chairs, didn’t have a TV and you had to share a bathroom with everyone. It was so fun wheeling my IV bags down the hall. And the medication took forever to get to the clinic when the hospital sent it over. Sometimes it was an hour or two before I got them, and I still had to wait two-plus hours for the infusion itself to finish. It turned into some very long days. Most days I would be there at 8:30 a.m. and leave around 2 p.m. Plus I had drive time to get there and back. It was crazy.

Two days before my last infusion, I got a call from the hospital saying they had moved back to the hospital. I was so happy!

It was great to have my window view from the fifth floor back again, a room to myself, and my own bathroom. It was so nice to be back there.

While they had a TV, I resorted to watching shows on my computer. It only took two tries to get the IV started, which was great, and no bruises this time! The IVs are usually put in somewhere that makes it difficult for me to type and most of the time the medications knock me out.

So this week, I just reclined in my heated massage chair, turned on my anime, and ate some chocolate doughnuts before passing out. I always get a laugh out of my nurse for the day. I bring a bag of junk food and beverages. For some reason, that’s what I crave during my infusions...chocolate doughnuts and Starbursts mainly. I blame the steroids. Thankfully, I was done at 11 a.m. this time.

It’s so nice to be back. I feel for staff in the department that had to move everything to another building across town, and then back again. I am thankful for all their hard work and making sure we can still get our needed treatments!