Day 298 - 'one' wierd feeling

Yep...feeling someone reach down into your chest and neck is one weird feeling I might say! LOL They freeze you enough that you don't feel pain but boy do you feel everything else. 

My appointment was changed yesterday to be a couple hours later in the day due to an emergency they had.  That worked out much better because then Ray could sleep.  The only thing was now I was going without anything to eat or drink until 1:00 in the afternoon.  Doesn't sound too bad you say but I depend on little bits of food to keep the nauseasnous down and pills to keep pain down...so luckily they said I could have a light breakfast at 6am.  Again that worked out great, I could down a pain killer with 1/2 a smoothie, woohoo!

Abbotsford Hospital is soooo nice.  It's only a few years old and everything is so new.  There are no people lining the hallways in stretchers and no crowds of sick people milling around.  Beautiful hospital. 

First thing we asked them when we were put into a room was if they provide training.   This was why we went to Abbotsford.  Unfortunately they said 'no'.  So we are still going to have to try and figure out this puzzle.  I need to get trained on having the port by Monday before my chemo session...sheesh! We had a little training when they showed me what the port looked like...Ray said it looked like one of those toys that have the plastic ball at the end you squeeze and a little animal hops at the end of it! Funny guy.  It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be.  Yeah!

They needed to do an ultrasound to check that I had a vein in my right chest that would work for the port and that turned out good.  They explained how the surgeon will cut a 2 inch slit in my chest and create a pocket for the port and then a tube will go from that thing into my neck down to my heart.  ewwwww.  The doctor was great and came by to explain everything again and asked how my anxiety level was...what do you think?  I knew my mindful breathing would definitely come in handy for this one.

I walked into the surgery room hooked up to an IV pole that will give me some relaxing juice, LOL and they dowsed me with orange stain to ensure all was sterile.  I'm not sure how long that will take to come off since I can't have a shower for a couple days. ewwww again.  Well I could go on and on, all went well and I only needed the bare minimum of relaxing juice.  I did tell them while they were routing through my innards that saying 'opps' and 'oh no' is not a good thing to say when people can hear ya.  They were surprised that I talked to them the whole time during the surgery, but sheesh I needed to keep my brain busy!  When they said 'perfect' at the end I let them know that 'that' was the right thing to hear! LOL

Before you leave they give you a card with the port's serial number and details so that if you go to any hospital they know what you have.  Ray wished he had asked if we needed the serial number in case it was stolen.  Cracked me up on the way home. 

So there you go.  We have a new member of the family...her name is 'Cathy' - named after Port-a-Cath.  She will make my chemo easier and soon she won't be a 'pain in the neck' anymore. Real soon I hope!

signed 'one' weirded out purple ladybug