Port Shmort

    I know this port is better than the alternative.  I've never been super fond of needles for blood draws, but after having so many needle sticks in this very short amount of time, I am developing a level of apprehension about needles that I've never had before. 
    So, having the port inserted will save me from everyone getting at the veins in my hands (blech, I hate that one the worst!) and arms over and over again. 
    I think I was a little bit on crack thinking this procedure was going to be quick.  It's good to have someone with you to be your memory back-up in case you are like me and your brain sometimes changes details to suit you, whether or not they reflect reality. Long time in pre-op, long time in recovery.  Long day in general of sleeping and shaking off sedation--not very productive, but still necessary.
    Here's basically how the port works: They make incision #1 at the "vein entry" site, they thread a catheter through the vein, and then make a larger "exit" incision for pulling the catheter back through the skin.  They attach the plastic PORTion (ha!) to the end of the tubing, then shove the whole thing back through the exit incision and under the skin, and then they tape you all up to heal.  Dissolving stitches and steri-strips, that's it.  (If you are actually a subcutaneous venous access port surgical expert, please mentally forgive my extremely brief and likely erroneous explanation.)


   

Imagine this is me, but I have a better rack.

  I'm not going to lie, this is hurting more than any of the other things.  The easiest so far has been the bronchoscopy biopsy, then the needle biopsy, next the bone marrow biopsy, and this one is the big ouch.  So far I'm not experiencing pain from where that plastic port is under my skin, but all in my neck (I suppose from having it cut open and having plastic tubing shoved, I mean threaded ever-so-gently, through my vein).  So at least I think it's post-traumatic ouch and not going to turn into "this will be your constant state of ouch for as long as this is inside you."  I'll still be stuck with a needle every time, but the needle just goes through the skin and into the port device that lives there now.  The catheter delivers the meds to or takes the blood from the vein.  Nobody has to fish around for a viable vein.  So yes, I acknowledge this is the way to go.  Just a little ick-a-docious to me to have something sitting under my skin like that.  One of my nearest and dearest has a monitor under her skin, and at least our subcutaneous foreign bodies are positioned so that we won't clonk devices when we hug each other!  (I have it on good authority that THAT hurts!)


The Last Word Tonight About Insurance

    Our cancer center has been going around and around with insurance, and so have we.  And by we, I mean my hubs.  And it's maddening.  I won't go into all the details because everyone has their own insurance horror story to tell--it's every bit as ridiculous, evasive, illogical, and exhausting as anyone else's experience.  The oncology office is still holding my chemo appointment for tomorrow in the off chance that something amazing happens and the insurance gives approval tomorrow morning.  If not, I'll just go see the oncologist, get the results from the final diagnostics, and then I guess we'll put me on the calendar for next week if we can.  The good side of that:  I'll bet Thanksgiving dinner will taste and smell very good, and I'll be a much more active participant in that.  The bad side of that:  it gives the tumor another week to get that much bigger AND it messes up my schedule of when I was counting on being functionally human in this next 3 weeks to take care of some business.  I know I'm not supposed to worry about other things right now, but I have a few commitments that I need to see through, and I was optimistic that, by starting chemo tomorrow, I would be in a "feeling good" phase when I needed to be. 

    So I'm not totally giving up--I'm still bringing my iPod with my 6+hours of music specifically selected for a Chemo Jams playlist.  I'll be happy to share song titles here and there--who knows, you might discover some new music that you like! 

     (Here's a teaser--if you don't know this one, just YouTube it.  I think my dad would have liked it:  "S.O.B." by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.)