Dinos in the IV Fluid

So, I set up a bit of amusement (I guess you would call it a prank) today, with the help of Rachel, Erek, and a few nurses. Rachel sent me an impressive envelope full of stuff. It was awesome, and made me laugh a ton (thanks Rachel!). Included was a package of expanding foam dinosaurs in little capsules (just add water).
I thought it would be fun to have a big dinosaur in my IV fluid for the doctor party tomorrow morning (the doctor party is what I call "rounding", a morning meeting in my room with the group of people who really influence what goes on with my treatment. This meeting is headed by Dr. Bruckner, with a sort of commentary from Tina (awesome person!)).
But of course I couldn't put a dinosaur in my ACTUAL IV fluid...
It turned out that right when this idea was forming in my head, Heather (one of the many really cool nurses) was changing my IV fluid.
Apparently they needed to adjust the amount of Dextrose in the mixture, so she was going to get rid of the bag that was currently going. I asked if we could keep it. And told her about the idea. She got all excited, and brought tape and scissors for us to use.
Much later, Erek and I were in the bathroom, emptying the old IV fluid (salt water, basically) into the sink (we had inserted the capsule, through a slit we had made, directly into the fluid, but it wasn't expanding). We re-filled the bag with warm water (just as the dinosaur package suggested), and added a new capsule. That one expanded nicely. I put three more in. But they kind of floated, and weren't too obvious. So, after telling Jamie (the night nurse) about the plan, I asked if she could think of anything blue that we could put in there. About half an hour later she came in with a bottle of blue Gatorade and a large syringe.
Now an extra IV bag hangs off of Winnifred, containing foamy dinosaurs and blue fluid.
Apparently Heather requested to be my nurse for tomorrow morning. She seemed really excited about all of this, and wanted to be there for the doctor party (all of this is mainly for them).
I really hope they notice!

So. Today the chemo included 4 chemicals, three of which were completely new. These came at around 5 PM. Two nurses were there, Heather and another one (can't remember her name). Heather put on this insane suit made of light blue papery material, rubber gloves, and a mask with an eye shield attached (clear piece of plastic). We complimented her on the new fashion, and she agreed that it was simply smashing.
One of the chemicals (Vincristine) was added to my IV line through a little syringe. They had to make sure it was inserted over the length of one minute.
Next was a chemical starting with "Dex," which would protect my heart from the Doxorubicin (which would be next). It was in a cute little IV bag.
Finally it was Doxorubicin's turn. Red (like cranberry juice), foreboding (with the biohazard symbol on its container), and coming from another cute little IV bag, Doxorubicin slid through the tubing and into my veins.
It took about 45 minutes for all of that to happen. After everything they gave me another cute little IV bag full of stuff that would prevent the nausea and other things that were likely side affects.
Anyway, I never really felt any different. One more round done.

Raymi finally got to come visit today! So did Alex (I hadn't seen her since we first met, around 5 years ago), Jane, Rafi, and Diana. That sounds like a lot, but really it was pretty relaxed.
I went to the "activity" out at the playdeck, which was paint splattering. Spinny style. We (one other patient and someone who does the activities) taped four huge pieces of paper to the floor, filled Styrofoam plates with paint, and put on white plastic smocks. Then we each grabbed a wooden top, coated the edges with the colors of our choice, and spun the tops on the paper. Paint flew everywhere, and it was really fun.
I met a few other patients. One of them was going to college in one of the cities a few hours east-ish of here (Syracuse, Binghamton? Can't remember...). Not many people came, though. We played Uno after our knees started hurting too much.

I've been having a hard time believing that I've been here for a week. Man, it flew! Sure, it feels like forever since my life was "normal", but it also feels like I've hardly been here at all.
It's sad thinking of what I would have been doing this week, and the next... I'm missing my last dance performance ever, which is next weekend.
But I've accepted that this is what I'm going to be doing, and I'm moving on.