She Pushed My Happiness Button

   She Pushed My Happiness Button
Tuesday started out as an almost depressing day. I needed to wake up early to drive my lifelong friend to Ruby Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. She was being treated for cancer of some lymph nodes. This was the third in a series of her chemo trearments. The drive was uneventful and we arrived before the registration clerks manned their positions. As we walked toward the entrance, I noticed a small “herd” of people in scrubs coming across the parking lot like stampeding wildebeasts. It was like films on the nature channels. Workers were heading to their designated areas.
 My friend needed to have blood tests before she had her chemo treatment. There was a delay when the technicians had difficulty starting an intravenous line. They needed it to draw blood and the cancer center upstairs would have an open line to infuse the chemo therapy. With one of my friend’s earlier appointments, the hospital had inserted a PICC line for easy access that could be reused for each visit. But the PICC line developed a clot shortly after its insertion and had to be removed.
They finally found a vein, blood was drawn, and we were sent upstairs. The physician assistant, nurses, and pharmacy aid spoke with my friend asking her about some adverse symptoms she had with the last round of chemotherepy. Everything seemed to cause a delay. The nurses needed to talk qith her doctor to get orders for the dosages for the next infusion. Orders needed to be relayed to the pharmacy so the correct drugs and dosages could be mixed and sent to the cancer floor.
Abby and Heather were the two wonderful nurses assigned to my friend. Although very busy, they couldn’t have been more friendly and attentive. Kudos. After the several delays, the infusions were started. The dose of the drug which caused the tingling was reduced. Bag after bag of medications were infused. How the nurses kept the diffferent medications separate really impressed me.
I sat by the bedside watching all of the activity and read. My only complaint was although the chair was soft, my sciatica acted up and I had to stand and walk in the room.
Eventually Dr. Shultz came to visit and talked to her about the drugs and her progress. She had had a PET scan the week before and anxiously waiting to hear the results. It was not only good news, it was great news. Her scan said that she was cancer free. She would need to return in three weeks for a last treatment, then a schedule for follow up visits. I had my happines button pushed and could hardly contain my joy on the drive home.