Jackie:
When I was in the hospital, I couldn’t see. I thought I was going to be doing all these crossword puzzles and stuff like that. I couldn’t even focus on the TV. My eyes almost felt like I was like legally blind. I swear I could see shadows and stuff, but my brain was such in a fog. I could barely, I couldn’t focus on anything. And then I just felt like my insides were really, really uncomfortable, so I couldn’t sit comfortably. I couldn’t stand comfortably. I couldn’t lay. I was actually hallucinating too. I think because they gave me a sleeping pill. I kept hearing circus music and I pressed my light. And I’d be like, can you guys please turn down the circus music? I can’t sleep. And they’re like, okay, we’ll stop that sleeping pill because Jackie’s going crazy.
Tony:
Either that or bring me some cotton candy and popcorn.
Jackie:
Right. So with that pain though, I know my mom was there those couple nights. They would give me a pain medication and it would stop my pain for about two hours. And I’d have to wait for the four hours before I could have another pain pill. And then I would just stand up crying, hunched over because it was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. And then I would literally stare at the clock, waiting for my next dose of pain medication. And I was pressing the light as soon as I could have it. So then I got my pain medication and then they just kept looking at my numbers to see when I could go home. You know, they didn’t know when you can go home. It’s all about your numbers, if your white blood cell count is good.
Tony:
Yeah, it’s all about your blood count.
Jackie:
But then on my last day, I hit my head on a table and they kept me an extra day. I think I didn’t know the president or something. I don’t know, who was it?
Tony:
Franklin Roosevelt? I was the same way. I just, you know, when I, when they started my treatment, of course they were getting my stem cells healthy and then they were giving me all of these drugs. It was unbelievable. And I was just a zombie for about nine days. I think I slept six hours in nine days and I just laid there like this. And I didn’t know who the president was, what the day of the week it was or anything else, you know? But he pretty well prepared me for that mentally, or tried to prepare me for that mentally. Did I know what I was going to go through? Absolutely not. None of us knew what we were going to go through.
Jackie:
No, I don’t feel like I knew what it was like either.