Bonus Super Feel-Good Week

I went in for Therapy 3.1 today, the first day of my 3rd cycle, the first day of the icky 5-day week. And they couldn't get a good IV in my right arm (my left arm, with its thrombophlebitis and general clotted-ness, is verboten). One of them got started, and got in enough benedryl to give me a nice mid-morning snooze, but that one blew, too, before I finished my pre-meds. There are all kinds of reasons - I have small veins that have gone through a lot the past few months, some of the good spots are scarring from the harsh drugs, other spots are bruising, and they're just frail. After 4 pokes, my nurse calls the doctor and they recommend installing a port, which is a little plastic thing that is surgically implanted beneath my skin, below my collar bone with a line going almost all the way to my heart. There aren't too many options, I need to be able to have a reliable IV, and with my "hypercoagulative tendencies" (I clot easily), they don't want to try another PICC line.

A Portacath: The first ever picture on this blog that is not of me!
(But don't worry, I'll probably make you look at a picture of it protruding from my chest on Saturday)

I didn't get any chemo today, and I won't get any chemo all week, not even on Wednesday - so this is like Bonus Super Feel-Good Week, like Intermission exactly halfway through my 12 weeks. I'll probably do more Feel-Good things like go into work, maybe more hiking, and ckraphts! And then I have outpatient surgery on Friday to insert the port (performed by my favorite surgeon, Dr. Hank Hallum himself). Well, it's outpatient unless my lung accidentally gets punctured, which is a minuscule possibility, but I mention it because I've been beating the odds in so many ways lately. Fortunately that depends on my surgeon, whom I trust, rather than my body, which has been doing some unfortunate things.

Oh yeah, and I'm off my Coumadin and back onto self-injecting heparin-based blood thinners so that my blood can be the proper thickness (PTINR=1.0) when I get cut open. So then a week from today I start my 3rd cycle. This pushes everything back a week and means I won't be done by Halloween. It also means that, since I won't have an IV in my arm during chemo, I may be able to knit while the poison drips in. How could they forget to list this as a Port Access Advantage in the brochure??

Well, friends, there you have it: yet another plot twist in Margaret's Medical Drama. Not a huge one, and you must admit there was ample foreshadowing in the past 6 weeks, but I'm still astounded that this very straightforward chemo plan has experienced complication after complication after complication. Frankly, I figured my bad luck should have just about run out by now!

Looking ahead: there has been some Ckraphting going on in Margaret's Casita and I can promise pictures of a new headscarf, fresh from being pressed.