It's been a busy week! Counseling, minor surgery, and chemo. Phew! I'm home today, feeling pretty good, ready to get some personal business done, as well as some thesis work done. yay.
The placement of the port-a-cath on Tuesday went well. Much to Dave's disappointment, he had to get up and drive me to Gritman Hospital at 6:00 am. He was tired. My surgeon did a great job (according to all the nurses at the Oregon Clinic) of putting in the port-a-cath. I have a 1.5in incision on the my right shoulder, with the actual port under the skin to the right. I can feel the catheter snaking from the port up to my collarbone, and then it disappears underneath to the vena cava. I was soo comfy in recovery, sleepy and under 4-5 warm blankets, all I wanted to do was keep sleeping. The nurses wouldn't let me. bah. But I ended up getting up, peeing, and eating, and they let me out of there by 10:30 am. Dave took me home, and I decided to be a lump on the couch for the rest of the day.
Because I was under general anaesthesia Tuesday morning, I couldn't drive a car for 24 hours. What that meant was that Dave had to get up early (again) to drive me up to Spokane to make my plane to Portland for my next chemo/synta treatment. We had to leave home by 5:00 am. Ugh. But Dave was a trooper and drive me up, making it to the airport by 6:30, and I appreciated it immensely. My friend Beth picked me up at the airport in Portland at 8:30, and get me to the Oregon Clinic by 8:45. She hung out with me until my parents got there around 1:30. My new port was the talk of the infusion room. Most of the nurses there had tried to set up IVs for me, and has seen how many times they went gunnybag, so the port was a relief to not only me but to them. The second wonderful moment of the day yesterday was that I got my drug early, and I was done and out of there by 2:00! Wahoo! No more port-treatment blood tests every hour for 4 hours!
The use of the port was interesting. When the nurses "accessed" the port with a needle, and it sounded and felt like someone was putting a pencil through a balloon without it breaking. Weird. But it allowed me to be more mobile, and the skin was numbed before the needle work. I guess I'll just have to deal with this thing under my skin, but I now see the advantages of it.
Just like every other visit to the Oregon Clinic, I got to meet some amazingly positive cancer patients. One woman with colon cancer was just a hoot! We gabbed for 20 minutes while she waited for blood tests to come back. Each patient has blood tests before treatment, and if your tests come back bad, you don't get chemo. She didn't get chemo yesterday, but it was still a fun chat. Another woman, Pam, and her partner (can't remember his name) were there again. They are the nicest people. He brought a telescope to share with the other patients. He could see two squirrels squaring off with a cat, but I couldn't see it. Pam has stomach cancer, and I've seen a huge change in her attitude over the last month. When i first met her, she was very teary eyed, and had a counselor coming to see her in the infusion room. Yesterday she was joking, and her partner was keeping her spirits up so well! I also talked with a woman who was fighting against getting a port. I was the same way last week! But now I have a port. Don't know if I helped her with her decision.
I got out of there early (2:00!), and mom and dad got there at 1:30. The four of us (mom, dad, Beth, and I) all left together, and Beth went home, while I went for a light lunch before heading to the airport. Dave was able to change my flight from 9 pm to 5 pm, so after lunch Mom and Dad dropped me off at the airport, and I made it into Spokane at 6:05 pm. Dave picked me up and we decided to drive around Spokane for a bit. Dave wants to buy a new barbecue, and the one he wants is at Home Depot. Unfortunately they had none in stock, so we may go to Lewiston tomorrow to see what we can do. After Home Depot, we went to dinner at the Taste of India. Oh, lordy, Indian food tasted soooooo gooooood!
Overall, a pretty good couple of days. The only down points right now is that the weather has turned cold again, I have Taxol running through my system, and my hair has now officially started to fall out. Thank you, Beth, for the scarves, and the two hats from my mother will likely see some use.
4 comments:
I loved your long, chatty post! Come and see me at College Hall - except Wednesday 4/23 through Sundary 4/16 Mary and I are driving up to Victoria to attend the NWAC meetings. We are taking the ferry from Vancouver, which should be fun (keeping my fingers crossed on the weather, though). I haven't been on a ferry in about twenty years and that was a short hop across Long Island Sound between Bridgeport, Connecticut, and somewhere on the North Shore of Long Island, NY.
oops, that was Sunday 4/26..
or shouldn't it be 4/27. Anyway, we're coming back on Sunday.
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