Last stay in hospital

 I am back in the hospital...for the last time (in this go round). I have a nice view of a pretty park on the campus and beyond that, the boats and water of the Montlake Cut. It's much better than seeing the cars driving up for pick up and drop off.

I have had two nurses who I already have had; I guess that indicates I have been here quite a few times. 

I will not have to get the lumbar puncture or intrathecal chemo this time. I have already had the Covid test twice and will have to get it again in the hospital but it's not bad here--they don't have to go as far in, for some reason. I did get a new shot in my belly yesterday that caused some mild burning pain for a half hour; it was an anti-blood clotting medicine.

The hospital has reverted to its one visitor per day policy. I assume it is because of the rising Covid cases but they don't explain it.

I have ten tamales in the nurses' freezer that I can take home and enjoy, thanks to Maria and her mom!

“Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!”

 Home again and it's nice not to be interrupted at midnight and 4 am (and more if there is air in the line for the chemo and it beeps and wakes me up--then the nurse has to come in and try to get the bubbles out). I slept over 9 hours last night! I love my bed.

My friend Jim is visiting from Arizona and has been helping me out. And he took me out of the city! We went to Kubota Gardens, a quick trip, but such a pretty place. It was the first time I had left the city limits since mid-February when I went to Southcenter Mall to see a movie. He got pizza and salad for take out and after the garden we got milk shakes. I got used to having them at the hospital (but they have protein in them, Carnation Instant Breakfast).

Of course, I had to go into the clinic today, only one day later, to get the shot, a growth hormone, that sometimes causes aches. I've had it before but I can't remember.

One more hospital stay in my near future! And I already have a PT scan scheduled for September.

Back in the hospital, 2nd to last treatment

I am back in the hospital, watching a lot of MSNBC which I don't get at home. Rachel Maddow especially! 

   I have my last lumbar puncture tomorrow, at least the last for this round of treatments. Who knows about the future! As usual the staff woke me up way too many times during the night and then the chemo gets air bubbles and beeps, waking me up and then I have to call for help. It really should beep the nurses' station but they don't have that technology, I guess. 

I don't have the pretty view I had last time. I have a view of the semi-circular driveway for admission and pick ups. I do see some of the campus which is nice.

The hospital has changed its visitor policy! They now allow up.to two visitors per day and they can be there at the same time!

I already had a visitor, Maria Isela, who I tutored when she was 7. She is 28 now and works next door at the dental school in Oral Medicine and came after work briefly. She didn't bring any food; that's a first for a visitor not to bring me food! But she promised me homemade tamales in the future. Her mother makes excellent tamales, she said. Today I ordered two turkey sausage patties and instead I got two scrambled eggs. Go figure! Save me from ordering hospital food!

Besides MSNBC, I'm reading, "Where the Crawdads Sing" which is good and a quick read. My next read will be "Lincoln in the Bardo" by George Saunders. It's a challenge to keep myself occupied but I am walking the hallway "lap" listening to The Band's Stage Fright. They say 10.5 laps equals a mile. Then you can get a paper cut out of sneakers and put it on your door. One patient has about 30 of them. How long has he/she been here to get that many, I wonder?