Tuesday 17th May
Went for my third round of Herceptin.
As those of you who have been paying attention will know, the veins in my right arm, even on a good day, are rubbish, the chemo has properly done for them.
The usual procedure is to immerse my arm in a bucket of warm water to bring the veins up. This usually does the trick. However, this time not so much. The nurse tried to put the needle in a vein on the back of my hand, very painful and not successful. At this point I asked how many attempts were allowed, she replied "Two". I did wonder what happened after the second attempt, would I be sent home in disgrace with my pathetic veins and told to do better next time?
The second attempt was in the vein near the base of my thumb. Not so painful but still no joy. I was not sent home in disgrace, instead the nurse disappeared off to get the matron. Interestingly the matron arrived and made straight for me. I am clearly the most problematic patient they have.
The matron peered intently at my hand looking for a suitable vein. Apparently pulsing veins are not suitable as they make the needle "bounce", which I gather is not a good thing. She found another vein in the back of my hand and gave it a go. No good. as she withdrew the needle the vein ballooned rather alarmingly. Nothing to worry about apparently, it's just the blood rushing to the site to help the clotting and because I had a tourniquet on the blood had nowhere else to go.
Attempt number 4, also in the back of my hand, again not successful. The matron put lots of pressure on my swollen vein with a gauze pad and copious quantities of micro-pore.
Attempt number 5, this was done at the top of my lower arm and was thankfully successful.
The matron assured me that the swelling would go down within a day or so (which it has) and that she would have a look at it before I left and bandage it up so I would look like a proper patient!!!
The rest of the session passed uneventfully and very slowly. Lunchtime came and went. I had expected to be out of the hospital in time for lunch. so consequently had not brought anything with me to eat. Fortunately the wife of the man in the chair next to me took pity and very kindly gave me a packet of kettle chips. Manna form heaven!
