Vanderbilt—To and Fro

At the moment tiredness has taken over and I could hardly manage to get a photo on the page! It was a long day and I think that it has caught up to both of us. We left around 8:30am and got home around 4pm. Of those 7-1/2 hours three of them were on the road...to and fro, five minutes were spent in the lab, and a total of 30 minutes total with the nurse practioner who checks how he is doing, orders the injection, and administers the injection...the rest of the time was spent in waiting rooms. We did have the assistance of a surgical nurse. She messed with the tumor and got sort of pulled the dead tissue off which set it to bleeding again. They wrapped it snuggly and sent us out to wait in the waiting room while the injection med thawed. When Debbie, the nurse practioner who is in charge of T-VEC injections, checked on the tumor after we sat for 1-1/2 hours it was still bleeding so she went looking for another nurse from surgery to cauterize the tumor with silver nitrate sticks...those got the bleeding stopped pretty well and then she injected the tumor. She wasn't able to get as much med in this time due to being afraid of getting the tumor to bleeding again. She is pleased with the way the solid part of the tumor is shrinking...but wishes that what used to be bubbles on the tumor would get less. We're hoping that cleaning up the dead tissue will help that part start shrinking, too. I do know that it is smaller...especially when I go to bandage it. It is easier to cover with the bandages provided than it used to be. Debbie put a lot of gauze on it and put the bandages over those and then put a knit sleeve over that and gave me extra of the bandages and the sleeves. Oh, and she lightly wound a strip of Coban around all that too hoping to keep it from bleeding. I don't plan to do anything with the bandages tonight unless it is to take the coban bandage off. I will just say that we looked like a surgery scene for a while in the room where she injects the med...quite a bloody scene. It wasn't the best day for Woody because his treatment left a lot of fluid in his abdoman...he was very ready to get home and have me drain it off. He was at the point of feeling like he was going to be sick so he couldn't take the Tylenol immediately after getting the medicine injected. He didn't take it till he got home and after I had drained him...then he felt he could swallow something once again! I hope that he doesn't have side effects because he couldn't take his Tylenol. He is already stretched out on the couch...dozing...I think...I hope I can get him to stir in a little while when it is time to connect him for tonight's dialysis treatment. I know that we are both glad to be home and glad for the fact that there are no more doctor appointments this week. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!