Chest Port Access

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I’ve written a few things about the chest port in my chest, but I’ve always been fascinated by the process of accessing it or tapping into it. So we filmed it this week.

Before this video was taken they cleaned the area. Then I turn my head, take a deep breath (both for good measure and to help hold the device still while it gets accessed) and then in it goes.

If you have a problem with needles you may not want to watch this, since it’s basically a large needle, and also there is a little bit of blood that you can see get pulled in to the tube when she checks for blood return (to ensure everything is working properly) after she puts it in.

Anyway I think it’s interesting. It part of the process, and therefore something that I feel is worth chronicling here even if its something that might disturb some readers.

Like counting the rings on a tree

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I don’t know how well these pictures are going to turn out, but I wanted to show you what my fingernails look like after 6 months of chemo.

Hopefully you can see in the pictures that there is a series of 8-10 horizontal bands running across each nail. Think of it as a time line of the last six months. Alternating times of good health and bad. Or rather, alternating times of chemo, and recovery.

My thumbnail on my left hand has a brown vertical stripe running through it (so running from the cuticle to the end) but I couldn’t get a good picture of it.

Interesting stuff.

I’ll go cut my nails now.

The Big Climb

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I’ve mentioned The Big Climb before.

It’s 69 flights of stairs.
It’s 1311 steps.
It’s 3 days after my last chemo appointment.
It’s gonna suck.
But I’m gonna do it.

I’m pretty out of shape after not getting much exercise after the last 6 months (much to my doctors annoyance) but the fact that this event is scheduled for mere days after my FINAL chemo appointment is a sign enough that I should do it.

When I did it back in 2006 (or something like that) I think my time was just under 15 minutes. It think this year I’d be happy with under 30

OOPS. HA! Actually. I just went to the website to formally sign-up and was greeted with the following message:

The 2011 climb has sold out as of 2:30 p.m. on February 28th.

So strike that. Apparently I’m not doing it =)
I think my sister and father-in-law got their registrations in on time though.

One. More. Left. 14 days to go. A fortnight. Half a lunar cycle. Two weeks.

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Stine here. Brian spent the evening at home on the couch after a successful day at chemo yesterday. With that chemo session behind us now, he only has one more left, with his final session scheduled for March 17! I wish I could just hit the “fast forward” button to get through the next two weeks.

We also met with Dr. Reddy yesterday, and she gave us two pieces of good news:

1) He does not need to have neupogin shots to restore his white blood cell count back to normal levels after his last chemo session. This means he only has to endure the painful shots for the next 5 days, and then he’s done with those forever!

2) She gave us the date she anticipates he will have his PT scan, which will be on or around March 24. She said she anticipates normal results. That is the first time we have heard her be really positively optimistic about expecting good future test results from Brian. This is a good sign.

We are supposed to meet with her again during the week of March 28 to get the PT scan results, and determine if he needs to have radiation for an additional month. Only time will tell on this one, but we are really hoping that he can avoid radiation.

The nurses all seemed to know when we got there that it was his second-to-last session, and they were all cheering him on. I have no idea what we can possibly get them to say “thank you” for the last 7 months of compassionate and informative care they have given us. They are a wealth of information, very attentive, and always a pleasure to work with. Their clinic is always stuffed with flowers and baked goods, so I hate to get them one more bouquet or another plate of cookies. I still feel like they deserve something as a token of our thanks, but I guess I have two weeks to figure something out. =)

So close…

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At first I thought it would only be a matter of time. But after a while I really thought I was going to make it.
But alas, this week I have finally succumb to the “the sick.” Yes, I have a cold.

I woke up on Thursday with a sore throat and a bit of a runny nose, but I was hoping that it was just the start of allergy season, as the weather on Wednesday was quite lovely indeed. I was a little worried that they wouldn’t let me go through with chemo on Thursday if I thought I might be sick, and I thought about not saying anything to the oncologist, but as it turns out, she didn’t really care.

Its almost shocking to think that this is first time that I’ve had to deal with any kind of “contagious” disease in the six months since being diagnosed. Especially considering the lengths that we have gone to keep my white blood cell count up. Every two weeks my immune system is basically reset back to zero, and every two weeks (with the help of daily injections) it works its way back up to barely passable levels before being leveled out again with the next dose of chemo.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this cold progresses, it’s already pretty miserable and I’m pretty sure that it’s just getting warmed up. I’m just bummed that I ALMOST made it through without getting sick.