Yet another restless night, but I think we can blame last night on the
terrible heat. Roberto felt good enough today to clean up the backyard
of his random crap! His summer cleaning is just in time for his family to visit. Now we can use the patio for barbequing.
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Since there's not much going on with Roberto, I decided to write up some of the little things we have to deal with since Roberto started chemotherapy. The following are a few things we learned about before chemotherapy started when we had Chemo Education with the nurse.
PICC Line
The PICC line is the catheter in Roberto's arm through which he receives chemotherapy drugs. We have to keep Roberto's PICC line dry which means showers are a big pain. Before each shower, I wrap and tape up Roberto's arm in saran wrap. Then Roberto has to awkwardly shower using only one hand. All of this becomes slightly more complicated when he has the fanny pack during the chemo drug week because the fanny pack is attached to the PICC line. Also, his PICC line has to be flushed with saline once a week to make sure the line is clear and the dressing is changed.
Washing Sheets
I'm still not sure of the exact reasons for this, but we have to wash the sheets in hot water each week - twice! At first, I thought maybe Roberto's body secreted the chemotherapy drugs out through sweat and that got into the sheets. However, it's apparently okay for me to sleep next to him. So, hopefully it's not that! :-/ Perhaps it's to make sure the sheets are super clean and free of any little bugs.
Fearing the Sun
Roberto has to make sure to not get any sunburns so he has to avoid the sun and wear sunscreen when he leaves the house. One of our first purchases was a hat (unfortunately, not the fedora). Wearing sunscreen is a new idea for Roberto since his dark skin rarely sunburns. He needs to avoid sunburns because sunburns are breaks in skin which may become infected. With his low blood count, infections are bad news.
It hasn't been terrible dealing with those three things; just added nuisances.
Cycle 2 - Day 10
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Since there's not much going on with Roberto, I decided to write up some of the little things we have to deal with since Roberto started chemotherapy. The following are a few things we learned about before chemotherapy started when we had Chemo Education with the nurse.
PICC Line
The PICC line is the catheter in Roberto's arm through which he receives chemotherapy drugs. We have to keep Roberto's PICC line dry which means showers are a big pain. Before each shower, I wrap and tape up Roberto's arm in saran wrap. Then Roberto has to awkwardly shower using only one hand. All of this becomes slightly more complicated when he has the fanny pack during the chemo drug week because the fanny pack is attached to the PICC line. Also, his PICC line has to be flushed with saline once a week to make sure the line is clear and the dressing is changed.
Washing Sheets
I'm still not sure of the exact reasons for this, but we have to wash the sheets in hot water each week - twice! At first, I thought maybe Roberto's body secreted the chemotherapy drugs out through sweat and that got into the sheets. However, it's apparently okay for me to sleep next to him. So, hopefully it's not that! :-/ Perhaps it's to make sure the sheets are super clean and free of any little bugs.
Fearing the Sun
Roberto has to make sure to not get any sunburns so he has to avoid the sun and wear sunscreen when he leaves the house. One of our first purchases was a hat (unfortunately, not the fedora). Wearing sunscreen is a new idea for Roberto since his dark skin rarely sunburns. He needs to avoid sunburns because sunburns are breaks in skin which may become infected. With his low blood count, infections are bad news.
It hasn't been terrible dealing with those three things; just added nuisances.
Cycle 2 - Day 10
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