Human Pincushion, Chemo Infusion #3 complete

Well, my mother and I jinxed ourselves on the way in today. Hey there is no impeding snowstorm or hurricane, this will be easy as pie (Thanksgiving on the brain). Well, my veins did not cooperate. One of the nurses it was her first day at the hospital and they all thought, hey lets give her the young one with good veins. Well my good veins are a little upset with the Taxotere (a known irritant) and after she tried to get the vein (which most most unpleasant and in my roid rage I told her so "Yeah, so that does not feel ok") for a few minutes and you could see the bruise forming. Her preceptor came over bearing hot towels and two more veins were tried by her. No success. More hot towels and the nurse who is the best stick in the unit came over and couldn't get the fourth stick to go. We were one stick away from having to call in the IV team (and now 45 minutes delayed from my infusion start). I had all sorts of gauze taped to me and 4 new bruises.  Then the 5th time was a charm, finally got a vein that wasn't so pissed off that it collapsed and had good blood return! Yay (and ouch). Otherwise, infusion went well. For the visual learners this is what it looks like:

The bear was a big hit. The volunteers who bring around lunch were obsessed with him. One had picked him up and was talking too him She asked me if I needed anything and I asked if they had any honey. She straight face looks at me and asks "For the bear?". I laughed, I said no for my yogurt. Another light moment in the day was when my head got cold and I put my sock monkey hat on. My oncologist came to check in. She took one look at me and just laughed. It's apparently really hard to take me serious when I have that hat on. The volunteers decided that officially made me the Cutest Patient of the Day. I'll take it. 

Factoids from the day: Weight is stable. Up 0.7lbs. Hematocrit and hemoglobin were slightly decreased, but ok. My blood sugar level was improved down to 137 mg/dL. The only item that was low was my bicarb. However, given the stomach bug from the previous Saturday not unexpected. But, everything looks good. Got the "really" look when I did tell the Oncologist that I didn't take anytime off last week despite being tired. Oops