POWER Portacath and my first Chemotherapy

THURSDAY:

Thursday was the day I was allowed to shower after getting the bone marrow biopsy which I was waiting for, however I wanted more sleep so I did not wake up early enough to shower.  Instead I woke up a half hour 45 minutes before my procedure, got ready, and went to warm up the Explorer.  When I got outside the windows were frozen.  After waiting 10-15 min of letting it heat up while I sat right inside the dorm watching it I decided it was time to go check it out.  Inside wasn't freezing anymore, but the windows were still frosted so I had to scrape them.  After that I got in and was on my way.  My destination today was to the Emergency / Urgent Care entrance.  When I got there I parked and headed in to check in at the front desk.  Immediately I was brought back instead of waiting for so long.  After that I was asked to sit in the waiting room and was there not even 10 minutes before someone came to get me.  I was brought back to the a room with a bed and was asked to change into the gown.  Only had to take off my shirt and shoes.  Then I crawled into the bed, where they gave me those warm hospital blankets.  Those are nice.  Now it was time for the I.V. (Should be the last!)  Everyone always comments on how great my veins are.  The nurse said if they had a student nurse around she would have asked if it would of been okay for them to poke me.  I would have let them, because if I get into the nursing program I will have to do it to people too, and my veins are big so it would be easy for them.  Soon after being hooked up with the I.V. and questions finished somebody came to take me away.  On the way we passed the place where I had my CT scan.

Power Port!

I was brought back to another room where I was greeted by a couple nurses.  They went over some stuff with me about what was going to happen and then I was moved again into the room for the procedure.  I was awake for the whole time, they put some sedating medicine through the I.V. but kept me awake.  A Power Portacath is what was being implanted into my chest. With this I won't have to be poked in my veins anymore.  This thing will be used for my Chemotherapy and for labs.  Pretty neat.  Anyway, in the room I transferred from the bed I was wheeled in on onto a thin operating table kinda thing.  Some lady did a sonogram to locate my vein that they wanted to use.  After everything was all set up they cut me open and put it in and I transferred back to the bed that I came in on.  The doctor said twice there will be a burn and a poke and at those times it did hurt, but other than that I didn't feel anything going on.  Was a real quick procedure.  After I was wheeled back to the first room I went to with the bed where I drank plenty of apple juice and water and watched the History channel for an hour before my buddy Eric picked me up.


FRIDAY:

Friday was the day I did my first Chemotherapy.  When I got to the cancer center I was with my Dad.  He came along, and says that he will be at every chemo.  He doesn't have to be, but if he wants to be there that is okay with me.  We talked to a nurse as usual first and after a little wait Dr. Gorouhi came in.  He was telling me that we could wait til Monday to start or start today.  Starting Monday would give a very accurate baseline, as I had a pulmonary test on Monday, but starting today would be just fine too.  I opted to go today, because of later scheduling and my Dad had already came up there for it and I just wanted to get it started too.  It was more convenient to go on the Friday I thought.  So that is what we did.  I was brought back to the Chemotherapy room and was told to choose a seat.  They had plenty to choose from.  I went with room number 7 I do believe.  We just sat there for awhile because they had to get everything ready for me.  A couple different nurses came by to talk and a volunteer came by with a menu that we could order food off of.  We both ordered some food that was supposed to come around 12:30ish.  After awhile I was hooked up through my port and everything started.  All I had to do was sit there, and watch TV.  I had the History channel on.  Taylor finished class and had a break so she came to visit for as long as she could.  She wanted to be there for the whole thing, but couldn't due to class.  She didn't miss much.  After about a half hour from when Taylor arrived our food arrived and Taylor had to head back to class and work.  The food wasn't bad, I had a personal pizza with fries and pretzels and chocolate milk.  I don't remember what Dad had, but he said it wasn't bad either.  He did have chocolate pudding though I remember that because it looked good.  While I ate the nurse pushed the 3 medicines into my port and then set up the last one which had to drip and would last about an hour.  During this time my buddy Brian Weyer got in town and came to visit.  He was already in Fergus Falls before so he didn't have to drive far to get there, but on his trip home later would have to go all the way back to St. Joe.  It was good to see him because it had been quite a long time, and anyone wanting to come visit me is welcomed.

Me getting receiving my chemo through my port

Not much to say past that.  Since Friday I have been doing just fine.  Tired, but some of my medication can do that and I've just been tired lately.  A good nap takes care of that though.