Dancing With Cancer Memoris...Getting A Port Installed

More surgery. Ugh. I needed to have a port put in so I can start chemo. My surgeon said he would put it on my right side instead of my left; my left has a tattoo of a unicorn. I also have a tattoo on my right thigh of a panther hanging on by his claws. I want to see if I can have it changed to a white tiger for reasons for another blog post.

At least this surgery wasn't so traumatic. On July 9th, my neighbor Connie gave my daughter and I a ride to the hospital. The nurse was able to get an i.v started this time, although I'm thinking I'll never get use to having needles stuck in me.
This time I walked to the o.r instead of being wheeled in on a hospital bed. I still felt very anxious but it was not the out-of-control terror of the last time. When the anaesthesia went in my vein, it burned but I went out quickly.

When I came to, a nice nurse ask me if I was in pain, and what kind of pain medicine I preferred. What a very nice nurse! I was thinking Christmas came early! So, with a straight face, I suggested dilaudin. Coming right up! About a half hour and three syringes of that tasty treat in my veins later, I'm pain free and was wheeled back to my room and my waiting daughter, Candace, who was concerned about how red my eyes were. Hey, it wasn't going to become a habit, I was in pain, so why not enjoy it while I can? I've been through a lot this year, and it was far from over!

Luckily I didn't have to spend much time in recovery. Candace got us a ride to the pharmacy and then home from a friend of hers. Actually it was a friend of her friend. I think she was a satanist; she had a tattoo on her wrist that looked like an inverted pentacle, but she was nice to give me a ride as a favor and she wasn't going to ask me for any money. I gave her some anyway because I appreciated the ride, regardless of her religion. As long as a person is a law abiding citizen, I don't give a rat's ass what religion they are.

So...got my tumor removed, got my port installed, now I get to start chemo. There's something about chemo that really unsettles me. I'm not sure what it is that unsettles me so. Of all the things I've been through this year, none of it compares to chemo. Chemo=bad illness= potential early death. When someone says chemo, everyone knows immediately what it's for. Cancer and all that comes with it. Side effects. Puking. Loosing your hair. Extreme fatigue. I get to look forward to six months of getting chemo every other week, plus two days with a fanny pack after each treatment. The chemo nurse told me I might not get that sick, that most people tolerate this regime quite well.

This particular regime is called modified folfox 6. The chemo drugs are oxaliplatin (which causes peripheral neurophathy and I have to be careful with anything cold), and 5-fu, plus leucovorin, which is a vitamin complex said to increase effectiveness of the chemo drugs.

I'll just have to wait and see. Maybe it won't be so bad.