As a reward for being SOOOO good yesterday during chemo infusion #3 (more on that to come below), I decided to take myself to the nail salon. Because of the chemo, my nails were thinning, cracking and peeling. I am not supposed to get my nails at a salon because the chance of getting an infection/cuts are high. So, I compromised. I asked the nail tech to just buff and file my nails to clean them up. I was originally going to just do a clear coat and nail hardener, but a super cute bottle of nail polish caught my eye. I picked up this pinkish nail polish by O.P.I. and I was immediately attracted to it. I looked at the bottom of the bottle and the shade was called "Rosy Future". I thought that this was more than fitting for me!Yesterday was such a shit-show. I put my lidocaine cream on as I did last time, but apparently I did not use enough because the port access hurt like hell.
Wait..let me start over.
I arrived at SCCA to get an H1N1 vaccine, blood draw and have my port accessed for chemo later that day. The nurse was sort've weird. I've never seen her before and she was just...scattered. She asked me a lot of questions that I had no answer to, such as "what size needle do you normally use?" etc. I was already sorta nervous for my port access so her bird-brained, scattered protocol were stressing me out. She gave me the vaccine, which was fine and then proceeded to have my port accessed. It hurt like hell and it just didn't feel right, even though I had lidocaine cream on it. She pushed several syringes of heparinized saline and then pulled for a blood return. Apparently, my port line was clogged and nothing was coming back through the syringe. She tried several more syringes of heparinized saline through the port, but no matter how much she pulled and pulled, trying to get blood, the more it began to throb and sting. Exasperated, she put me in a recliner and leaned me back, hopefully to get the blood pooling to the area. She tried several more syringes and weird bodily manipulations and still nothing came back and now my port, which is still new, hurt even more! So the nurse had to take blood from my arm, which made for three pricks in one day (That sounded dirty didn't it? LOL). In sum, materials were flowing IN but not out of the port.
I painfully made my way up to the 4th floor and my port was hurting so bad it forced me to tears. Soon after I checked in, I was called back and the nurse noticed that I was crying. I explained to her that my port was hurting and she immediately offered me some pain relief, which I accepted. My nurse practitioner, Lorraine, came in to inspect my port. Lorraine has this interesting way of making your complaints seem trivial and her attempts at compassion come off condescending. She's good at what she does, but I try to avoid talking to her if possible. She essentially told me that my port pain was "not a big deal" and that I didn't need pain relief (literally her own words), but she was planning to have the infusion nurses, who administer the chemotherapy, inspect it since they are experts at port placement. If the port is blocked with a clot or whatever, it is easy to clear with a special medication called TPA. It "eats" away whatever clot or material is stuck in the port. If that didn't clear it out, the radiologists would have to be called to inspect it via CT/X-Ray and a peripheral (hand/arm) Iv would have to started for the day's chemo. UGH. I saw both of my oncos and we discussed my reactions to chemotherapy and how I have been managing my symptoms; everything seemed satisfactory. In fact, my white blood cell counts, neutrophils etc were actually HIGHER after my last infusion. The oncos told me to keep doing whatever I was doing! You mean cookie shakes, fries and light/sporadic TaiChi? Works for me!
I checked in at the infusion desk and was immediately sent to an infusion room. My regular nurse came in and we discussed the problems I'd been having with my port. Nikki explained that the needle used to access the port was off angle and it is catching the port in a way that backs everything up. Any material that is in the tubing should have been cleared with the heparinized saline, but since the port was improperly accessed, nothing was making it through. The medicines were collecting in the port (and not flowing through/in the line)and since there was so much medicine in the port, it began to dissipate into the surrounding tissues and muscle. Heparine causes burning and pain at the injection site and all of the tugging and manipulating of a relatively new port did not help either; thus explaining the excruciating pain. Nurse Nikki gently manipulated the port and gave me a series of breathing techniques which should help mitigate the issues with the angle of the port. With that, everything was flowing properly. I did not need a new port or have it reaccessed! YAY!
Anyway, chemo #3 wasn't nearly as bad as before. I requested that my anti-nausea drugs be administered by IV and my chemo diluted with saline. I also drank a whole liter of water throughout the infusion and ate a box of lunchables. Light frequent nibbling and lots of water has made a WORLD of difference this time around.
Today, I'm feeling pretty blah. A little queasy, shakey, and weak, but I managed to have enough energy to go to the nail salon. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be much improved!
This afternoon, my Mom was watching her fav movie, Pretty Woman. It is, of course, the one movie I cannot stand!! Usually, I just flip the channel or try to con her into watching something else, but somehow, Julia Roberts' hair was mesmerizing. In the movie, she has this long, curly red mop of hair. I was nearly in tears because it reminded me of my hair before cancer. Before I gave my hair away and started chemo, my hair was really really long. I donated a whole 11" of hair to Locks of Love and had enough left over to style. Just to give you an idea of what kind of hair I used to have...(The color is a little mousy because the picture was taken in winter. My hair color changes in summer)
Senior in college. Pre-cancer, pre-grad school and 10 pounds lighter! (stupid steriods...)
Anyway, here is a picture that has made my day. What a sweetie, no? <333 (Black one is Niko, the cream-colored one hiding his face is Mosey)
No comments:
Post a Comment