Port Placement Aftermath

Alright, everyone. The port placement went well, though I was awake for the procedure because the drugs they normally use don't knock me out anymore. But, I was numbed up and had pain meds on board, so I just kept asking the doc what he was doing and he would tell me as he progressed. I had to wait around for an hour or so to make sure I was okay, then I went home. I fell asleep during American Idol, and didn't wake up until almost 6:30 the next morning! My mom said I didn't even really move at all. Would have been nice if I could have slept during the procedure! Oh, well. Today, I am still a little sore and bruised, but it's not so bad. It will make my chemo treatments, blood draws, and CT scans much easier to do now. To the left, you can see a pic of the same kind of port that was put into my chest. You can read more about it at http://www.bardaccess.com/port-powerport.php.

My poor veins are still sore from Tuesday, and the taste has pretty much disappeared out of my mouth. Everything tastes pretty gross, no matter what I'm eating. I'm still kinda nauseated, too, and nothing smells good at all. Every smell that crosses my path makes me a bit queasy. I'm sure that will disappear in a day or two, it usually does.

It sounds like I will be getting a CT/PET scan in four weeks. We will see then if the 'hotspots' that were seen on the last one were what we thought they were (healing tissue from my surgery) or if there is any cancer left anywhere. My last scans were pretty clean except for what we hoped was just that healing tissue. I'm optimistic, because not only did we catch it early, but the surgeon was pretty confident that he got all of the tumor that was on my heart.

Well, that's about it for now. I try to keep updates coming, but it seems that things around here are so uneventful these days! Maybe that's a good thing.

Thanks for stopping by, everyone! Your guestbook entries really do make my day!