The lack of sleep is really really starting to trouble me. Once again I only slept about 3 hours last night, turned around and dozed on and off for another 2 and that was all the rest I got. Ugh! So so sick of it. I sense that my body actually needs the rest and the sleep, but this stupid drugged up body is too stubborn to actually just get it. If I lay down right now I might fall asleep, but most probably will be awake around 1 AM and will toss and turn till 3 AM and then what? So I’ve decided to wait till the laundry is done (which I just put into the washer a few minutes ago), put it on the line and afterwards try to get some rest afterwards. Still way to early for my typical Saturday night, but what can I do? And I want to be up at 6 AM to watch the German hockey team again. Being awake at 6 AM shouldn’t really be a problem for me at the moment though :-(
The good news is, that today was the last IV, the symptoms are really vanishing, the sideffects (besides the sleepless nights) are not as bad as some other time. Trying to stay positive here. I’ll still have to get through my usual day of meds withdrawel starting tomorrow in the early afternoon, where my whole upper body will feel like having been used as a punching ball. Thank God I’ve got enough ibuprofen at home for the pain. And the laundry in the machine at the moment aare new and comfy linens, so that I can have a comfy, comfy bed tomorrow afternoon, in which I can relax and try to be as comfortable as possible to manage the muscle pain.
I got the last IV at a hospital ER, because the neurologist practice is closed on the weekend of course and it’s usually not a big deal in the ER either. It has been easy going this morning, so drunk party accidents left over from last night or something. There was one older guy walking around on the floor, moping, that he wasn’t allowed to eat any breakfast and that he was hungry and that he really needed a cigarette. And there was a nurse (a young one, still in training, I guess) who actually gave him a cigarette and went out for a smoke with him. WTF??!?!? I don’t care if she’s smoking when she’s off work, but how on earth can you give a cigarette to a patient. As a health nurse in a hospital? Ugh, so wrong in my opinion.
It was the same young nurse I had to ask to take care of the IV, take out the needle and all, after the IV was done. She was the only one around, but I really should have known better than to ask her :-) The staff at the neurologist practice usually hooks up the IV with the small needles, which are common for drawing blood. You don’t have a wide range of motion with this small needle in your vein, but that’s ok and it’s much easier to handle for the staff there. After the IV is done, you just pull out the needle, apply pressure and the bleeding will stop.
At the ER the staff insists on a peripheral venous catheter, which does not just puncture the vein (like the small needle) but inserts a small tube into your vein. It’s common for patient who need IV for days on end, so that they can move the arm, because the needle can’t just fall out of the vein. I don’t really care what kind of needle I’m stuck with, I’m used to it all. But with these kind of venous catheter, you can’t pull out the needle as easily. You have to remove the IV line from the catheter and shut the catheter by inserting something like a plastic needle. Because the blood keeps flowing through the catheter and if you don’t insert something fast, it’s going to be a mess. Which it was in my case, because the stupid nurse wasn’t fast enough or didn’t know what she was doing. My arm, my book lying next to my arm on the table and the table were splattered with my blood. Well, maybe not splattered like in “splatter movie” *g*, but let me tell you that the nurse was busy for a while cleaning up the mess and we didn’t get the blood stain off the book completly. Stupid, stupid, stupid nurse! Ugh!
What more is there to say? Before the IV I watched the 2nd game of the German Hockey team against Finland this morning. Ouch! Germany lost 0:5 and even though a loss was to be expected, I hoped for a nicer result. Like 1:3 or something. To see my guys score for once. They did such a great job against Sweden in the first match, but they seemed to be super nervous in this 2nd one. They didn’t fight enough, they made a lot of mistakes, and just like Sweden, Finland is so much more experienced and just the much better team, so they used the lot of chances the Germans handed to them on a plate. Not much fun to watch, unfortunately. I can only keep my fingers crossed that it’s going to be better against Belarus at 6 AM tomorrow.
The washing seems to be coming to an end, so I’ll better go and take care of that now. And then off to bed. Hopefully to some uninterrupted hours of sleep. PLEASE!!