I read Robbie Russel’s blog at http://www.kickcancer.blogspot.com/1 on his experiences licking cancer. The link to this blog is at www.burkitts.org2. Robbie, if you’re reading this blog, thanks for detailing your experiences! It seems that for all the good intents of the Institute of Medicine3 in attempting to reduce error and improve quality of service that there are still far too many snafus in the delivery of service. I deem myself fortunate in having had decent care at DFBWCC, but I can also relate to some of the experiences you went through. For example, on the night of my first big 3,000 mg. methotrexate infusion, I was not informed how long it was going to take. A nurse did the first pH test, and I was still way acid (4.2 or something) so I figured it was going to take a while. Then an hour later, a PCA (Patient Care Assistant) came in and did the pH test and told me it was 7.2. I said I thought that was unlikely and called the nurse. Turned out the PCA didn’t know how to do the pH test (surely not that hard!) and had misread the scale. From then on, the tests seemed to come at random times. They were pumping me so hard with Sodium Bicarb that I started to pee fizzy. The concept of reading the pH at regular intervals and drawing up a trend line did not seem to occur to them.
At other times, the PCA would come around and take my temperature and vital signs. I never did figure out when they were supposed to do this. I’ve been in three different wards so far at B&W and it seems to be different in each ward. Sometimes the readings would appear to be anomalous, but the concept of having a back-up thermometer did not seem to occur to anyone. At one point I asked the nurse how often they calibrated the thermometers and just got back a blank stare.
Of course, it’s not always the hospital that can screw up. Last night I was supposed to get a home neuprogen shot and clear forget. I took it early in the morning instead. Heck – it’s just an overpriced vitamin. Then the classic mistake this afternoon… In yesterday’s log I wrote how I had taken to drinking Caliber as something palatable that I can drink to keep my liquids up. Halfway through lunch I discovered I had drunk half of my brother’s beer (Dogfish Head Pale Ale – highly recommended for non-chemo patients!) So far no side effects except for a nice siesta! I am starting to feel the effects of the chemo from a few days ago, but so far nothing major and am keeping the nausea in check with my three buddies: Lorazepam, Prochlorperazine, and Zofran.