Yesterday I posted pictures of my chest port, but I realized that I never included any pictures of it in action. Well is is what it will look like when they “access it” (the term they use) today for Chemo.

And what it looks like up close:

As you can see they just plug right in. The shiny stuff is a layer of film or tape that they stick over the access needle just as extra layer to hold everything in place. I wish I had a better picture of what they actually stick into me, I’ll see if I can get a better photo today during chemo. The whole process is so much simpler and believe or not, less invasive than an IV.

I wish they were able to use it at the clinic here in town for my blood draws, but they can’t, it has to be done by a nurse. So my blood draws continue to be taken through the veins in my arms, but even that is beginning to get more and more complicated as they are having to deal with scar tissue in and around those veins from the repeated pokings. By “more complicated” I just mean that they tend to hurt more and bleed for longer afterward.

The pictures above were taken the day after I had the chest port installed, and as you can see the area around the port was a little bruised and discolored. It’s not too bad in those pictures. It got worse. Much, much worse:

Sorry for the grossness. I promise not to post anymore shirtless pictures of myself for at least a short while. 2 days in row might have been a bit intense for some readers. To make it up to you, here is a picture of Pepper in her Christmas hat:

For the record, I do not and will not ever approve of dressing up pets. But Christine cannot be stopped. (Correction by Stine: “That’s not true! I’m anti ‘dressing up dogs’ as well… With the exception of her raincoat, which is practical. And her Christmas hat, which is cute.”) So there’s that.

Today is chemo session 3A, its my 6th treatment and the beginning of the 3rd cycle. We also meet with the oncologist today to discuss the results of my CT Scan from last week. Like I said, we are expecting good news and have no indications so far that it will go any other way, but there is always that little bit of uncertainty in the back of my mind, so I’m understandably a tad nervous. Check back tomorrow for the results of that conversation.

I haven’t seen the results from my CBC test yet, but as they haven’t called to cancel, I assume at this point that my white blood cell count is within the “safe” range for chemo, but probably still well below normal levels. The rest of my blood work that has come back is all normal including the liver function test that they run once a month (to ensure that the chemo drugs are not damaging my liver).

We are going to try some new tactics today to help minimize the anticipatory nausea that I’ve started to get. Basically I’m going to try taking some of the anti-anxiety medication that I’ve been prescribed BEFORE we leave for the hospital. It will mean that I should be pretty high by the time we meet with my oncologist but I think it’s worth it in the long run.