The torture is almost over! Let chemo begin!!

April 8, 2010
Yesterday was a total low point and I'm glad today is another day. For some reason, Val the vein nurse, had deemed my veins too weak and puny to handle the chemo potion (or do I mean poison?). Apparently, the stuff is so toxic that if it leaks out of the vein into surrounding tissue it can cause quite a problem. That sounded nasty. The better option, Val explained, was to have a port installed.

Given that I function on a 'need to know' basis, I hadn't really given this port business too much mind, busy as I was having my bones scanned and innards scoped, blood examined and teeth cleaned, not to mention accumulating a spectacular collection of pills. Plus I knew I was getting that nice twilight medicine again. How unpleasant could this be? To be fair, my friend S had warned me that this wasn't your typical walk in the park and that I'd be sore, so I had the Tylenol ready and felt prepared for one last ordeal before the chemo began.

If I tell you that the GI lab's twilight anesthesia works and the Radiology lab's twilight doesn't, then I've told you the whole story!

First, though, let me explain about the port. It's a contraption about the size and shape of a piece of Toblerone and it sits under the skin on your chest. There's a small tube connected to it that gets tunneled under the skin and up to the neck where it's inserted somehow into a huge vein, the vena cava. The surface of the port immediately under the skin is a membrane and if they need blood they insert a needle and suck it out. If they need to flood you with chemo drugs they insert an IV contraption and the drugs drip into you through the port. Actually, quite clever.

Surprisingly, it's the radiologists that do this procedure, though general surgeons do it too. I think they use ultrasound to locate your veins so that's why you're in the Radiology lab. It's the usual prep routine, strip to the waist, get on the table, little pinch for the IV and then you drift off while they do their thing. Usually you wake up when they've finished and they give you breakfast.

I woke up to tugging and pushing on my chest and feeling as if someone was strangling me. I must have said something - and I hope it was rude! - and I guess they pumped more sleepy medicine. But that was a highly unpleasant experience which I do not care to repeat - ever!