It involves what it's really like to be disgustingly sick and unable to do anything about it. Spend several hours getting a chemo infusion. Come home and eat the small, bland, sensible meal they recommend and take a large swig of kayopectate. Take the anti-nausea meds which make you sleepy.
Go to bed. Wake up every 15 - 30 minutes or so for the first few hours to pee. Totally normal, they push a lot of saline along with the treatment, and there's no way out but through. This makes you more and more exhausted and stupid.
Go back to bed. Again. The stomach cramps that you're expecting kick in. Go sit on the toilet again for a fairly obscene amount of time while nothing happens. Be exhausted. Go back to bed. Wake up out of a dead REM sleep about an hour later realizing that if you move you're going to shit yourself, and if you don't move you're going to puke on your husband's head. (Fortunately, thanks to previous experience, had laid a towel down on the bed before getting into it.)
Make a run down the hallway while regretting that you bought such a ridiculous house and have a moment of indecision - do you sit or do you kneel. And in that indecision everything breaks loose anyway. 8 feet of vomit (we have twelve inch tiles, not hard to count) and a square or two of the otherstuff. Round two is coming fast, I opted to sit. And then having no other receptacle nearby, puked on my feet. Twice. Bland tortellini with mushroom sauce, if you must know.
People, I DESTROYED that bathroom. The throw rug is still in the wash and may go straight to the trash if it doesn't recover. I killed two rolls of paper towels and two rolls of TP attempting to clean it up. Two hefty bags. Someone managed to "sleep" through all of this, even with me cursing and flipping the lights on.
Barf bags should be here tomorrow and will be kept in multiple locations. I'm exploring the adult diaper options and they do not come in my size at a price I am willing to pay, yet. There is now a rubber sheet on the bed, as well as extra towels under the sheet on my side of it. This weekend I will be procuring a duplicate set of our housecleaner's supplies to keep upstairs (two floors above where they are normally stored), including gloves, mop, bucket.
25% done, but it's going to get progressively worse, every week. I will be prepared.
Yesterday I did sleep all but about three hours. I ate 2/3 of a smoothie that Bob made me, and about three conservative bites of soup and oatmeal. I didn't drink enough, which I think may be slowing my recovery. It seems that only cold things appeal, and cold things are down a floor and I can't get out of bed or get down the stairs in that state. So I'm going to borrow Bob's insulated lunch box and keep several different cold things to drink by the bed all day. I hope it helps knock me out of it sooner.
Today I had a bunch of meetings and didn't dare try real food until they were done. Cafe au lait for breakfast, 1/2 a chocolate shake for lunch, and then finally, half a plain hamburger for dinner. I think all is well. We'll see how it goes when I lie down.
Go to bed. Wake up every 15 - 30 minutes or so for the first few hours to pee. Totally normal, they push a lot of saline along with the treatment, and there's no way out but through. This makes you more and more exhausted and stupid.
Go back to bed. Again. The stomach cramps that you're expecting kick in. Go sit on the toilet again for a fairly obscene amount of time while nothing happens. Be exhausted. Go back to bed. Wake up out of a dead REM sleep about an hour later realizing that if you move you're going to shit yourself, and if you don't move you're going to puke on your husband's head. (Fortunately, thanks to previous experience, had laid a towel down on the bed before getting into it.)
Make a run down the hallway while regretting that you bought such a ridiculous house and have a moment of indecision - do you sit or do you kneel. And in that indecision everything breaks loose anyway. 8 feet of vomit (we have twelve inch tiles, not hard to count) and a square or two of the otherstuff. Round two is coming fast, I opted to sit. And then having no other receptacle nearby, puked on my feet. Twice. Bland tortellini with mushroom sauce, if you must know.
People, I DESTROYED that bathroom. The throw rug is still in the wash and may go straight to the trash if it doesn't recover. I killed two rolls of paper towels and two rolls of TP attempting to clean it up. Two hefty bags. Someone managed to "sleep" through all of this, even with me cursing and flipping the lights on.
Barf bags should be here tomorrow and will be kept in multiple locations. I'm exploring the adult diaper options and they do not come in my size at a price I am willing to pay, yet. There is now a rubber sheet on the bed, as well as extra towels under the sheet on my side of it. This weekend I will be procuring a duplicate set of our housecleaner's supplies to keep upstairs (two floors above where they are normally stored), including gloves, mop, bucket.
25% done, but it's going to get progressively worse, every week. I will be prepared.
Yesterday I did sleep all but about three hours. I ate 2/3 of a smoothie that Bob made me, and about three conservative bites of soup and oatmeal. I didn't drink enough, which I think may be slowing my recovery. It seems that only cold things appeal, and cold things are down a floor and I can't get out of bed or get down the stairs in that state. So I'm going to borrow Bob's insulated lunch box and keep several different cold things to drink by the bed all day. I hope it helps knock me out of it sooner.
Today I had a bunch of meetings and didn't dare try real food until they were done. Cafe au lait for breakfast, 1/2 a chocolate shake for lunch, and then finally, half a plain hamburger for dinner. I think all is well. We'll see how it goes when I lie down.
Barf bags are small. Might I suggest a couple of small plastic garbage bins or those dishwashing plastic containers? Also, do you know about Chux? They are largish squares that you can probably fashion in to a diaper, and hugely helpful to have spread out on the floor, bed, etc (just make sure you don't slip on them).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nationalincontinence.com/pc/8H/Nightingale/Nightingale+Underpad+Chux?gclid=CMuCs_XvtrkCFY9eQgodrAkAIw
Love you bunches babe. Wish I were there to help.
-s
Did not know about Chux. Ordering tonight. Thanks!
DeleteBy barf bag, I didn't mean the little airplane things. These are medline, heavy duty blue plastic that hold 36 fl oz at half full and have a non-flexible plastic mouth. It looks like they are big enough I should be able to tie them off it's a smaller amount, or dump them in the toilet and roll them up for the trash if it's bigger. I like Cindi's coffee can idea too. These would actually line one nicely.