My Breast Cancer Journal
May 14-20
Tuesday, May 16, 2000
Well, we went to three basketball games over the weekend and totally wiped me out. If I'm this tired before I start chemo, I'm going to be really fun to deal with after we start! Speaking of starting chemo, yesterday we got the MUGA scan and bloodwork out of the way. It was an interesting day. I decided to go early, just in case they could do my blood work first. Good thing I did. When I signed in at the front desk, the admitting person had never heard of a MUGA scan and told me I was in the wrong place. She took a look at my orders and sent me across the street to another place. This place was hot, crammed with people and crying babies, and the line was 8 people deep just to sign in. By the time I got up to the desk to sign in, I had a sinking feeling this was not the right place. It wasn't. They did let me use their phone, however, so I called the doctor's office and verified that I had been right about where to go in the first place. So I went back across the street to the hospital and signed in again, telling the admitting lady that the MUGA scan was scheduled to be done there. She gave me a rather pointed look, but disappeared for a while and when she returned, she allowed me to sign in.Finally the nuclear med tech came to prepare me for my scan. I asked her if there was any way she could coordinate her blood draw with the lab. All my good veins are in my left arm, which now cannot be used for blood draws due to the risk of lymphedema. On the right, I have a very small vein on top of my hand that is good and that's it. Once I explained that to her, she was very cooperative. She got the folks from the lab and they did everything all at once. She put in a hep lock for her own work. She took out a large vial of blood and then went back into her lab with it. I waited for about 30 minutes while she mixed in a radiotracer and then whirled the blood around in a centrifuge. Thankfully I had brought some crosswords to work or I would have been very bored. Then she put the blood back into me using the hep lock. Once that was done, she took out the hep lock and we went into her lab. She attached 3 leads (just like they would for an EKG) - 2 to my chest and 1 to my side. Then I laid down on a narrow plinth and she positioned a boxy thing over me. There's no tube or anything like that to worry about. It's more like an X-ray than an MRI or CT scan. For a while I could see the screen that showed the scan in process. Then she had to move the box and it blocked my view. After it was over, she wouldn't tell me the results, but she did confirm that I have a heart (several students I used to work with had expressed doubts about that, so we've finally put those rumors to rest!) and that it is beating.
Today I talked with the onco nurse about the schedule for chemo. As long as everything goes OK with the surgery tomorrow, I'll start chemo on Tuesday the 23rd at 8 am. They told me to expect to be there for 4-5 hours for the treatment. I'll have to pick out some easy reading novels and some easy crosswords for that day. One of the tips that people in my support group have shared is to get a prescription for the anti-nausea drugs before starting. So I asked for that today and they are calling it in for me. My massage therapist had asked that I verify that it is OK for me to continue treatments with her. The nurse said that it will be up to whether I tolerate them well. She said that everything is so individual in terms of reaction to the chemotherapy that I'll just have to figure things out as I go along. But there are no medical contraindications to continuing to receive massages. I'm glad about that.
This is very overwhelming and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. It's a fear of the unknown at this point, not a fear of the cancer or of death. I just don't know what the chemotherapy is going to do to me. That's scary. I'll feel better after the first one, although I understand that the first treatment is generally easier than subsequent treatments, probably because you go into it healthy. The rest you go into immunosuppressed and fatigued. Still, I'm anxious to get started. There has been too much waiting so far and I want to get going on treatment.
posted by Karen Weber Tuesday, May 16, 2000
Thursday, May 18, 2000
Well, it's done. The port is in. Mom came down last night so that she could go to the hospital with us, then stay to bring me home. That freed Rick up to go into work as soon as I was out of surgery. The hardest part of the surgery was getting an IV started. The nurse said she could certainly understand why they were placing the port! The surgery was done with a local anesthetic and Versed (which sedates you and provides a very nice temporary amnesia during and after the surgery). I remember a little bit about being in the operating room, but not much after I got off the plinth and onto the table. The nurse who took care of me pre-surgery told me about a friend of hers that had breast cancer and had chemo. She shared that her friend just finished her 5 years of tamoxifen treatment and is disease-free. The other nurse told me about her sister who is a also a survivor of breast cancer. They were very supportive and caring. They also said that they respect and enjoy working with my surgeon. The nurse in the recovery room has six cats just like we do. We traded cat stories. It was a much easier day than I thought it might be because of the kindness and support of those nurses..I took a long nap when we got home. My temp went up a little bit to about 100, but responded well to some acetaminophen. There are two incisions. The lower one, where the port was inserted, is not painful or uncomfortable. The upper one, by the collarbone where the shunt was inserted into the vein, is. It tugs a bit whenever I turn my head, even when I chew food. I'm sure that this will get better as the tissues heal. The thought of having this hardware inside me is a little weird, but it sure is going to save a lot of trouble in the future.
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, May 18, 2000
On this page, Venous Access Devices, under the subhead "Implanted ports or reservoirs" is information about the type of port I had implanted today.
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, May 18, 2000
More information at: STEP: Intravenous Catheter Lines under the subhead: Central Catheters, Implanted Ports.
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, May 18, 2000
Friday, May 19, 2000
I slept in the La-Z-Boy last night. I didn't think that the muscles in my neck and chest were up to the waterbed. I didn't sleep well, but that's to be expected I guess. I'm still pretty sore today. There is some light bruising over the path of the catheter. That's to be expected I supposed. Some redness around the incisions, very light. I'm not running a temp so nothing to panic about. There is a blotch a couple fingers below the incision where the port was placed. It is below the port itself and a little toward the armpit. I'll call the surgeon's office this afternoon if it persists because the area is also swollen. Still pretty uncomfortable with chewing and moving my neck. I'm not sure how long this is supposed to persist. I'm the impatient type so I'd like it to go away right now!
posted by Karen Weber Friday, May 19, 2000
Saturday, May 20, 2000
I slept last night in the guest bedroom and was able to sleep on my side with no problems. Today I am feeling much better, although I still feel like I was kicked in the chest by a horse. No pain chewing or turning my head today. Just local pain along the course of the catheter. All in all, much better. I am going to try sleeping in the waterbed tonight. I hope I can sleep without any pain medicine. If I take a pain pill, it takes me until after noon to shake off the effects. I want to sing in church tomorrow, so I want to sleep well but not wake up drugged. I'll try it with just some anti-inflammatories.I have been telling Rick that if I go bald (and on the adriamycin it is virtually guaranteed that I will), he has to shave his head. He's been saying all along that he would shave his mustache, but not his head. Now, this is a great concession. I've been married to him for almost 14 years and I've never seen him without the mustache. Nevertheless, I told him that would not be enough. I wanted the head shaved. He's holding out. Anyway, a couple weeks ago I told him that I was just pulling his leg about shaving his head or his mustache. I told him someone in the family has to stay good-looking. We laughed. Well, today he went out for a hair cut and came back with a bald upper lip! He's such a sweetie. He just couldn't wait until I noticed, but I was so focused on admiring his new hair cut that I didn't even notice. So he kissed me with his lips all pursed up and laughing to get me to look at his lips. What a card! We had a good laugh. I love this guy! He's going to make sure I go into this first chemo laughing!
posted by Karen Weber Saturday, May 20, 2000