The itchy and scratchy show

• Trip to the Cancer Care Clinic at Big Barnes

Today started off like a normal Monday... waking up slowly... wishing that it was still Saturday... driving into work... and getting settled in for the day. Mid-way through the morning though, I started to not feel that great, then came the chills and the all-over body sweats - thru my clothes. CLAMMY is an understatement.

I called into my oncologist's office and coupled with the fact that my right shoulder (the side of my port) has been bothering me for a few days, my NP scheduled me to go down to the Cancer Care Clinic at Big Barnes. "In and out for some blood work and blood cultures." Sounded okay by me. We wanted to rule out an infection and just check what's going on. Unfortunately, since the infection could be related to my port, we won't be able to access it today.

Oh dang.

Let the attempts to draw blood the old-fashioned way begin!

1. Inside of my left elbow - Missed! My veins are "slippery little boogers".
2. Back of my left hand - "Found a juicy one," but it seemed to collapse almost instantly.

**Time to call in IV Expert #1

3. Back of my right hand - A stick but no blood return. And this IV Expert is NOT interested in trying again.

**Time to call in IV Expert #2

4. Right forearm - Success! Well, kinda. There is no blood return, so we are probably on the wrong side of a valve. The good news is that we can use this stick for my IV though and my nurse starts some fluids.

5. Back of my left hand (again) - It's a tag-team effort, but my original nurse and IV Expert #2 are able to get a stick with a decent blood return for my labs.

While waiting for my lab results to come back, the NP at the clinic starts me on 2 antibiotics through my IV. Apparently they aren't compatible with each other, so I have to get them 1 at a time. My friend Brenda, who is also a NP, is sitting with me and tells me that I am getting the antibiotic heavy-hitters, to really go after an infection. The first one takes about 20 minutes and it finishes without problem. The second one gets about half-way finished and as I'm talking to Brenda, I start feeling really itchy, my scalp and forehead turn red and I've got a red stripe on my arm coming away from the IV spot.

Oh dang.

Add that one to my allergy list. Things cleared up in about 15 minutes... after we stopped that second antibiotic and added some Benadryl to my IV.

The good news is that my blood work looked normal (for me). The results of the blood cultures will take a couple days, so the clinic NP called two prescriptions for more antibiotics into my pharmacy and sent me on my way. Five hours at the clinic, what a Monday.