CD22...IVD2 (IV Day 2)Meet my Little Friend

Yesterday I had my PICC line installed at the local hospital. This is all part of Dr. Hungarian's treatment to rid my body of the evil C and the T parasites. It's normally done in Dr. Hungarian's office, but out here these things are put in with great pomp. I was gowned and escorted to a radiology room where I was laid out on a table. A nurse scrubbed my arm with alcohol and draped me with a buttload of towels. Then the doctor came out. He was masked to the hilt. It looked like they were going to perform surgery on me. I was a bit nervous as the doctor clearly had a cold and was sniffling and trying to hold coughs back behind his mask. Thoughts of sepsis ran through my head.

Dr. S gave me a shot of painkiller and got started. They did an u/s on my upper arm to look for a nice fat vein. Finding one, they threaded a needle into it. They needed to recheck something on the u/s and something went wrong. The machine didn't respond. I laid there for about 7 minutes with this damned wire in my arm. It really stung. I could hear the doc muttering things under his mask. He was stressed. I was stressed. I was there so long he gave me a second shot of pain killer so I could hold on. Eventually the machine came back on. Relief ensued all around. He then took a digital xray to ensure that the wire was in said vein. It was. I was bandaged up and told to follow a nurse who had my abx. She gave me an intial dose of clindamycin to make sure that I could tolerate it. It dripped into my arm for about 30 minutes and then I was on my way home.

2:30PM my nurse arrives and he sets me up with my pump and 10 days worth of clindamycin. He's very nice, friendly, but somehow he couldn't convey to me how to flush my tubing. I am pretty adept at doing medical things, but something was missing in his explanation. No bother, he said another nurse would return the next day (now today) to clean up my dressings. He set the pump to give my meds at 6PM, 2AM, and 10AM. My second dose came and by nightfall the nausea set in in a big way.

The pump is noisy. I'm amazed how rickety it sounds. This is technology, eh? I hit the sack at 12:30AM and ask J for some ear plugs. I know this thing will wake me otherwise. I sleep through it all until 3:15AM. I'm having a dream that I'm sticking my fingers down my throat. I'm trying to dislodge something stuck on the back of my tongue but I can't get it and I feel like I'm going to vomit. I wake up suddenly, and yes, I think I want to vomit. I grab my IV fannypack and head to the bathroom. My mouth takes like hell. Not metallicky, but just VILE. I brush my teeth and take out my retainer. Blech. "This is bad", I think to myself and I go back to bed without tossing my cookies.

The nausea continues when I awaken. Nothing sounds good for breakfast. My mom is doting on me. Bless her heart. I finally settle on clam chowder. Something warm and soothing. It feels great going down but then it hits me. Shellfish on an empty stomach? Let's just say that we were still *not* feeling better.

11:15AM I saunter into my acupuncturist's office looking like death warmed over. I'm wearing my being sweats, old white tennis shoes, black sweater, with a green fleece. You can tell I didn't give a crap about color coordination this morning. I just needed relief. I told her about the nausea and after the students did their usual grilling of my symptoms they led me to a Tx room where they stuck me with 15 very painful needles.

But amazingly, at the end of treatment my nausea was pretty much gone. They suggested I drink loads of fresh ginger tea upon arriving at home.

Fresh Ginger Tea

• 1 teaspoon jarred ginger (wet, not dry!)
  
• 1-2 teaspoons dark muscovado sugar
  
• boiling water

Put ginger and sugar in a coffee mug, add hot water, stir. Taste and adjust ginger and sugar til it's tasty and drink as much as you can. There are bits and pieces that float around. Let them settle or eat them. It doesn't really matter.

My innards are still making frightening noises. Trouble is brewing, but I'm feeling tons better after the needles and ginger. The nausea is totally gone. My hat is off to the effectiveness of Chinese medicine.