My Arizona Journey – AmaryllisMusings

I hope you enjoy this journey through my experience at Envita Medical Center. I do not regret going although we did not get the results that we had hoped. I loved watching people, and especially the nurses as they lovingly cared for the patients. It’s an extremely busy place but everyone always had a smile and cheerful word to say. It was a very difficult time but the care I felt there I haven’t really found in any other place I’ve been. This post took me about a month to caption by doing 1-2 pictures a day. Pearl edited for me. Blessings, Amaris

The beginning of the journey to Envita. May 13, 2020 Saying goodbye to my sister was so hard.

May 15 was the day my port was put in. I never had a surgery before so all this was very new.

After surgery. I don’t remember much about it. I do know they didn’t prepare me for the pain involved. I never had a surgery so….I took all the narcotic pain meds they gave me plus more.

My favorite decorations. My cowboy hat and pictures of my family where I could see them.

View of the room I mostly stayed in. My lights are also something that cheered me up and made it feel more like home.

It took a while to figure out all the supplements and get the timing right for everything.

Mommy and Aunt Becky went down with me and Mommy spent a week getting meals prepared, organizing etc so that it would be the easiest for Auntie who was staying.

Since Frosty couldn’t come with me I got this little white puppy to sleep with.

My first day for treatment. Quite a story which I’ll put below…

When I first went back they took my vitals and my heart rate was very high. So we had to wait until it came down because the meds go right into the top vein of your heart and they didn’t want to start until it was better. It wouldn’t come down so they had to give me two different kinds of drinks awhile apart to get my heart rate to come down. Which then I ended up needing some fluids to keep my blood pressure up. They also finally let Mommy come back. For Covid they don’t let caregivers come back except for special cases. So I never started treatment until around 2:30. I was supposed to start around 11. So it was a very long, hectic day. We are not sure what’s going on with my heart. Friday was the same way wouldn’t come down very well. Not sure if it’s anxiety or what. So I’m going to keep a close eye on it and now the nurse knows what to do to help it. My nurse is Ashley and she will be my nurse for the whole time except for couple of the special treatments. She is a very sweet girl.

Loved watching fish while listening to something. It helped keep my mind on it.

Part of the treatment was the PMF mat over different parts of the body.

In the first week of July Candace traveled down to spend a week with me. It was so nice to have company after the long lonely weeks.

Some scenery on the way to the clinic. It reminded me of Mongolia. Hot and dry.

The girls gave Auntie a break on July 4th so we reminisced about Africa and watched President Trump at Mount Rushmore.

I had a long day and Candace was allowed back after most of the patients were gone.

One of the parts of treatment was walking a little bit. So I did that every evening.

Something I saw at the clinic and it was encouraging.

My cousin Rose researched some cute gift ideas for the nurses and doctor. Then Pearl kindly made them all up.

All ready to give out. Pearl kindly hand wrote all the notes.

Apheresis day. Its a machine that takes all your blood and filters it. It helps get some of the toxins out.

Around 12:30 a lot of the nurses and staff gathered in the lobby. The doctor had hoped to be there but he was in a consult. Auntie read the little speech I wrote and then I rang the bell. (They have an optional tradition where patients will ring the bell in the lobby on their last day of treatment. Ringing the bell has a different meaning for each patient – it could be to celebrate the progress that was made, or to acknowledge the hard work and fighting spirit that they put into their healing process. They gather the treatment team in the lobby so we can all be together and celebrate the journey.) Everyone cheered and clapped celebrating with me. Different ones came and gave me a hug and said encouraging words. Even a couple of the ladies I met there came and gave me hugs.

Here is the speech….First of all I want to thank my Heavenly Father. He is so good to me. He allowed us to find Envita and I am so grateful for that. We had come to the end of our resources. From the very first with talking to Hayley we felt heard and understood. I can’t express in words my gratitude and thanks to all of you. You have made this journey as smooth as possible. The compassion and care, friendly smiles, words of encouragement, and love I felt here is nothing like I’ve felt before. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know there’s quite a journey ahead but I am thankful for the start on my healing journey that has been given me. I pray for the staff and patients of Envita everyday. Keep up the good work and keep smiling. I know I am very quiet but I love to observe people and I’ve done a lot of that here. I hope that someday I can carry the compassion and care I’ve seen here in my own future nursing LPN/RN experience. God bless you all

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