What a day today was. We woke up bright and early to leave Courtnie with Grandma and Grandpa. We then headed for Dr. Lee's office to begin the first dose of chemo.
Because I caught Courtnie's cold I was already feeling crummy. I thought that catching the cold might not be a bad thing - give me a head start on feeling crummy. Add on top of that that I couldn't eat or drink in preparation for surgery later on today to put in my port and the day was pretty challenging.
Me before leaving for Dr. Lee's office in the morning.
The nurses at Dr. Lee's office, Marybeth and Jodie, did an outstanding job of getting me prepped and hooked up. The original plan was to try to get all the chemical in me before my 1130 check-in time at the hospital for surgery. The nurses were quick to say that there was no way that was going to happen because the chemical would not even arrive until 10 o’clock or so and they want 4 to 6 hours as a general rule to put it in me to watch for allergic reactions, etc. So work was done behind the scenes to see if things could be changed and they were – surgery would now be around 2 or 3 that afternoon.
Meanwhile, I sat at Dr. Lee’s office getting my first dose with Kimberly by my side the whole time. This chemical, Rituxin, is the least harsh and didn’t cause me any major problems as I got it. Got a bit of an allergic reaction which caused me to start breaking out and made my face flush. I was a little itchy as well. All in all, the morning went well. They gave me an intravenous of Claritan to knock down the allergic reaction to the chemical. The biggest pain was having to go to the hospital to have my ‘port’ put in. The nurses at Dr. Lee’s office stopped my chemo to be resumed later and Kimmie and I drove over to the hospital to get checked in with the surgeon.
Me at Dr. Lee's getting Rituxin
The surgery for the port placement is pretty straight-forward. They cut a pocket in your chest, place a catheter that runs along large vein in your chest to the main vein returning blood to your heart from the top part of your body. The plan was to do a general anesthesia and knock me completely out and I'm all for the knocked-out sort of surgery. The surgeon explained that it can be done under a local anesthetic but sometimes in that "twilight zone" a patient still reflexively reacts to light changes, sounds or what have you and because he is wielding a very sharp pointy object very near a lung he prefers to knock people out. I knew already that we were going to get along great... and off to dreamless state I went.
Well, the surgery turned out well, but the aspirin regimen I was on made the blood very 'slippery' and so we had a bleeding issue which prolonged the surgery. Not a big deal, was brought under control and I'm here typing this. However, the anesthesiologist was unable to place a breathing tube in my throat to administer anesthetic gas to keep me under during surgery because of the lymph nodes in their constricting things. So, they worked around that (I don't know how but am assuming they used more IV drugs to keep me under and used a mask to keep me breathing). Long and short of it, it turned out well, the port is in and I returned to Dr. Lee's office to get the remainder of my chemotherapy for the day.
When we returned to Dr. Lee's, Bill Bone met Kimmie and I with Japanese food (mmmm, sushi!) from Tokyo Teriyaki. That was truly a highlight of the day! Having not had anything to eat or drink since the day before dropped me from 206 lbs to 203 lbs and I was an unhappy starving camper. The remainder of the Rituxin was put in me and we went home after picking up Courtnie from Grandma Bone's house along with a turkey dinner for the girls.
This is me with Dr. Rovira (Dr. Lee's partner who did the bone marrow aspiration and biopsy - if you ever need one of those he's the guy to see). You can seen the bandages from the port placement surgery I just came back from.
It was a long day but the only thing notable for difficulty is all my muscles (both of them) really ached after getting out of surgery. I learned from the surgeon that he used a drug that paralyzes all of your muscles and that soreness is from that. The soreness is such that it was all I could do to get out of bed the next morning to go to St. Anthony's North Hospital to check in for the remainder of my week of chemotherapy. The other thing going on is some soreness in my throat from when they tried to put the breathing tube in but it isn't a big deal.
That pretty much wraps up Day 1 of my first "cycle." I'm loving all the e-mails and messages - thank you. Remember, appreciate life - cause you never know!
Because I caught Courtnie's cold I was already feeling crummy. I thought that catching the cold might not be a bad thing - give me a head start on feeling crummy. Add on top of that that I couldn't eat or drink in preparation for surgery later on today to put in my port and the day was pretty challenging.
Me before leaving for Dr. Lee's office in the morning.The nurses at Dr. Lee's office, Marybeth and Jodie, did an outstanding job of getting me prepped and hooked up. The original plan was to try to get all the chemical in me before my 1130 check-in time at the hospital for surgery. The nurses were quick to say that there was no way that was going to happen because the chemical would not even arrive until 10 o’clock or so and they want 4 to 6 hours as a general rule to put it in me to watch for allergic reactions, etc. So work was done behind the scenes to see if things could be changed and they were – surgery would now be around 2 or 3 that afternoon.
Meanwhile, I sat at Dr. Lee’s office getting my first dose with Kimberly by my side the whole time. This chemical, Rituxin, is the least harsh and didn’t cause me any major problems as I got it. Got a bit of an allergic reaction which caused me to start breaking out and made my face flush. I was a little itchy as well. All in all, the morning went well. They gave me an intravenous of Claritan to knock down the allergic reaction to the chemical. The biggest pain was having to go to the hospital to have my ‘port’ put in. The nurses at Dr. Lee’s office stopped my chemo to be resumed later and Kimmie and I drove over to the hospital to get checked in with the surgeon.
Me at Dr. Lee's getting RituxinThe surgery for the port placement is pretty straight-forward. They cut a pocket in your chest, place a catheter that runs along large vein in your chest to the main vein returning blood to your heart from the top part of your body. The plan was to do a general anesthesia and knock me completely out and I'm all for the knocked-out sort of surgery. The surgeon explained that it can be done under a local anesthetic but sometimes in that "twilight zone" a patient still reflexively reacts to light changes, sounds or what have you and because he is wielding a very sharp pointy object very near a lung he prefers to knock people out. I knew already that we were going to get along great... and off to dreamless state I went.
Well, the surgery turned out well, but the aspirin regimen I was on made the blood very 'slippery' and so we had a bleeding issue which prolonged the surgery. Not a big deal, was brought under control and I'm here typing this. However, the anesthesiologist was unable to place a breathing tube in my throat to administer anesthetic gas to keep me under during surgery because of the lymph nodes in their constricting things. So, they worked around that (I don't know how but am assuming they used more IV drugs to keep me under and used a mask to keep me breathing). Long and short of it, it turned out well, the port is in and I returned to Dr. Lee's office to get the remainder of my chemotherapy for the day.
When we returned to Dr. Lee's, Bill Bone met Kimmie and I with Japanese food (mmmm, sushi!) from Tokyo Teriyaki. That was truly a highlight of the day! Having not had anything to eat or drink since the day before dropped me from 206 lbs to 203 lbs and I was an unhappy starving camper. The remainder of the Rituxin was put in me and we went home after picking up Courtnie from Grandma Bone's house along with a turkey dinner for the girls.
This is me with Dr. Rovira (Dr. Lee's partner who did the bone marrow aspiration and biopsy - if you ever need one of those he's the guy to see). You can seen the bandages from the port placement surgery I just came back from.It was a long day but the only thing notable for difficulty is all my muscles (both of them) really ached after getting out of surgery. I learned from the surgeon that he used a drug that paralyzes all of your muscles and that soreness is from that. The soreness is such that it was all I could do to get out of bed the next morning to go to St. Anthony's North Hospital to check in for the remainder of my week of chemotherapy. The other thing going on is some soreness in my throat from when they tried to put the breathing tube in but it isn't a big deal.
That pretty much wraps up Day 1 of my first "cycle." I'm loving all the e-mails and messages - thank you. Remember, appreciate life - cause you never know!
