Now that we’ve broken down my first month in the hospital, I wanted to talk about all of the other stuff in another post. It was just too much to talk about in one!
So as I’ve already talked about my diagnosis, my first month in the hospital on the medical perspective, I wanted to talk about what my stay looked like day to day, what I did, and anything else that crossed my mind!
I need to do a separate post about the Neutropenic diet. I was often on this “diet” because every time I had chemo, my white blood cells would plummet, and that made me restrict myself from eating certain things.
I want to start off to say that I was extremely lucky. I have amazing parents who came to visit me every day. My parents live about an hour away from U Penn’s Hospital. My mom has a flexible schedule, so she would come visit me from 11am-3pm almost every day.
When I was allowed to have cafeteria food, my mom would grab me lunch from there and bring it to my room; the hospital food wasn’t exactly the best… Some days I would nap while she was there, but it was just nice to have her there even if I was passed out.
After she left, I would have a few hours to shower(ha!) or take a nap if I didn’t take one while she was there.
My dad would drive to the city after work, eat dinner in the cafeteria or in my room, and stay for an hour or two. Since it was basketball season, if there was a Villanova men’s basketball game on, then we would watch it until halftime, and then he’d drive an hour home. GO CATS!
Even with the craziness of it being Thanksgiving and Christmas time(holiday parties etc), they still came down every day. Like I said, I was extremely lucky.
I didn’t have anyone sleep over in the room with me, because I couldn’t have them sleep in the chair. I wouldn’t want to do that, so how could I make them do that!?!
I didn’t want my mom, or anyone, visiting me earlier than 10am at the earliest, because: I would wake up between 8-9am, then the team of doctors, pharmacist, and a few others would come in for 15 minutes, vitals would be taken, I’d eat breakfast, and just adjust to being awake.
As I stated in my last post, every morning at around 4-5am, I would be woken up by a nurse assistant to get my vitals taken, and let me tell you, that is not fun. I swear I was an actual zombie sometimes, and would barely remember them waking me up!
Sometimes I would have to take a nap after breakfast before my mom got there because I was so exhausted!
When I didn’t have a visitor in my room, I always had either Food Network or Bravo on the TV. I did get an iPad as an early birthday present, and it wasn’t until my later hospital visits that I really took advantage of my Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime memberships(WHAT A MISTAKE!)
As I’ve mentioned before, I have a large family on both sides, and a good amount of friends, so thank God for FaceTime and Skype!! Lots of FaceTiming!!
Due to many things, such as it being the holidays and my birthday, and mainly just being part of an amazing network for friends and family, I received many amazing gifts.
*Of course, I was just happy to get a text or a card from someone!!*
Remember it’s the thought that counts!
I spent a LOT of time in this super comfy and fluffy hooded bathrobe… it was a blanket, sweatshirt, and a hug, all in one!
I will do a separate post on that for gift ideas about things other than what you’ll find when you Google “what to get someone who has cancer”. Without even Googling, I could probably tell you the top 5 things that were recurring.
I did receive a good amount of books, but I wasn’t into reading yet. My attention span was also not really existent due to chemo. TV, Instagram, and texting consumed most of my free time because they were more mindless. My vision also was very blurred for about two weeks, but that’s different story for another day!
On Sunday December 10th, 2019, I came home from the hospital 4 days before my 28th birthday, and 15 days before Christmas. Woohoooo!!!