Had the extra topotecan chemo today. This time the nurse was not very slow and careful with the IV. It was like being stabbed with a fork actually. I have small veins and know it's usually hard for the nurses to find a "good one" to use. It took at least 10 minutes and even consults from other nurses occasinally to find just the right one for all my previous treatments. I was annoyed at first with that, but oh my gosh, that's so much nicer than this new tactic. A second or two look and then she stabs me in the largest visible vein in my forearm, which is at the wrist. They always say, there'll be a pinch, but oh my, that hurt! She started to draw blood for the labs, but when it still hurt like that after getting a tube of blood, I knew I better say something about doing another vein for the actual chemo drugs. I couldn't put up with that for the next hour and half! I asked if she could go up further on the arm and so she chose one right at the bend of my elbow. Why she didn't use a vein the middle of my forearm like all the other nurses, I don't know. Guess she didn't want to mess around with being selective.

The good part is that my blood counts, although lower than normal, are still fine for allowing me to do chemo without any additional measures. I'm praying that I won't have to do any blood tranfusions or take any white blood count (WBC) boosters. I had to take a Neulasta shot to help with my WBC for the fifth of the 7 rounds I did my first time around with chemo. For me, Neulasta was worse than the chemo itself. I would get severe pain in my muscles and joints. I swore that I would never do Neulasta again if I had any say or control in the matter. Anyway, I digress. My counts were still good enough to avoid Neulasta. Whoo hoo! I did a quiet celebration and the remaining 90 minutes of my treatment went by thankfully uneventful. But I did notice in the drive home, that my wrist was already slightly bruised where this Nurse Ratched stuck me and even more where the end of the needle was. Add that to the puncture mark at the bend of forearm, and I have 3 more areas to add to my scarred arms. And this is only round 2 of the 6 I'm doing. I'll be able to play connect the dots before I'm done with all my chemo this time!