You gotta ride with the ups and downs

Today I was supposed to have my first radiation treatment at noon.  My wonderful hubby made kiddie arrangements so he could be here with me for moral support.  The morning got off to a bit of a rocky start, with me again missing out on parts of my therapy sessions due to having to go potty at inconvenient times. All lost therapy time, I should point out, must eventually get made up at other times during the same 7 day period in order to satisfy insurance requirements that all in-patient rehab patients receive the equivalent of 3 hours of therapy a day for 5 out of every 7 days.  Thus all my various bowel delays from the past week will be made up by me having extra therapy sessions on Saturday, which is okay with me because I generally feel that one day of rest, Sunday, is sufficient, whereas two days of no therapy in a row tend to make me feel like I'm losing ground by not having enough activity.  We were still able to accomplish some occupational therapy tasks though, such as practicing putting on my pants, taking off and putting on socks, and putting on a shirt, all of which count towards my weekly skill evaluation, so that's a good thing.

So anyway, this morning was already not going according to plan when the news came in that a machine in Radiation Oncology had malfunctioned and my appointment was moved to 4pm, if they would even be able to see me today at all.  This was a huge disappointment, since hubby would not be able to still be with me that late.  As always though, it's important to make the best of things, so we determined that we'd enjoy our day together, had a tasty lunch from the cafeteria, and got back to focusing on my therapies for the day instead of thinking about the delay in radiation.  And since I wound up having painful diarrhea right after lunch, it was probably actually a blessing that I wasn't in the middle of radiation transport or treatment right then!

After I got cleaned up, hubby got to watch them use the mechanical lift to put me in my wheelchair and then he had to take off.  I wheeled myself up and down the hallway again, then because my hips weren't positioned optimally in the chair we decided I needed to transfer back to the bed to reset the position of the sling that is used to lift me.  Trouble was, the sling wasn't in a good position, that's why my hips hadn't landed ideally in the chair, so we decided not to use the lift to get back into bed, we would try a slideboard transfer!  That, in case you didn't know, is a huge milestone, to be able to slide sideways from one surface to another using your arms and legs and good sitting up balance to scoot.  We tried it, and we did it!  I had 3 people helping me, but it still counts, and is a huge step toward my goal of being able to accomplish multiple sliding transfers per day by the end of the week.  Once I can do that, we will be able to get me off of the catheter and bed-pooing routine and into a more civilized pattern of getting on the commode several times a day to take care of business.  Obviously I can't wait to reach that goal!

After we got me back into the bed, I still had about 45 minutes of therapy time left, so we decided to go all out and get back in the wheelchair.  I have to roll back and forth in the bed for them to position the sling back under me, but we got the more ideal positioning of it this time, so when we did the lift and set me down in the wheelchair my hips were more comfortably squared in the seat and bearing my weight evenly.  Then I wheeled myself out to the elevator and down to the therapy gym, where we worked on the balloon-batting balancing exercises again, and we could even see an improvement in my balance from just yesterday to today.  At the end of the session I wheeled myself back to my room, where we used the lift to get back in bed rather than slide again, to conserve energy for the rescheduled radiation appointment I would hopefully still be having at 4pm.  Good thing we didn't spend a bunch of time trying a second slide, too, because less than thirty minutes later Transport arrived to take me at 3:30 instead of 4:00.  I might not have had my sweet hubby at my side, but I did have the company of my very compassionate and supportive nursing student who had been taking care of me throughout the day.  She came to Radiation with me and acted as my caring cheerleader throughout the whole process, and I was really grateful for her company.  

The session went very well, overall.  The table I have to lay on is far from comfortable, but bearable, and the hardest part was just the holding still for 15 minutes, because of course the instant you're told you can't move, five million nerves in your face immediately cry out to be scratched.  A barely existent breeze tickles your nose, there's a twitch on the outside edge of your left eyelid, the scratchy phlegm in your throat begs you to cough.  But it's only 15 minutes, and then it's over.  Totally doable.  Then a nurse gives me a bunch of stuff to read about radiation treatments and reviews the type and timing of the side effects I will likely experience, and then I'm back to my room again just in time to get my glucose checked and eat dinner.  I was so wiped out I fell asleep reading the Radiation info after eating, but overall I'm very satisfied with my day.