It Was A Day From Hell ..

A vision in hospital gear, no?

So yesterday was port surgery day and baby, it was a long one! We arrived at 7:30, a full hour before my appointed time, but at MDA if you arrive early, generally, you get seen early. Generally, but not yesterday! It was 10:30 before they took me back for pre-op stuff: nakedness, compression hosiery, antibiotic IV, stuff like that. And it was 12:30 before they wheeled me to the OR. My nurse, Millie, was great! The anesthesiologist, Pascal, was from Ghana, West Africa .. And his last name was a hyphenated alphabet soup, hence his being called “Pascal”. He was about 6’5” and a handsome blue-black gentleman with a soft voice. I liked him immediately. And, despite the fact that he messed up my eye makeup during surgery, we parted as friends. (Even though in my medicated state I kept calling him Pasquale. He just smiled wider.)

They brought Dave back to the recovery room at 1:45 and we were there for more than an hour while I shed the remnants of my sleepy meds. I wasn’t really in any pain but I was sore. Sometime around 3:00, they wheeled me to chemo. Since I had missed lunch in recovery, I was hoping to get something to eat in Chemo since my half of a hamburger from supper the night before was long gone. My chemo nurse was less than wonderful. This was a first as all my nurses (and all the staff) have been great so far. Dave and I repeatedly told her that I couldn’t hear her soft voice and yet she seemed to refuse to speak up. Finally, I stopped trying to hear her. Dave asked her if I could get something to eat since I hadn’t eaten all day and she just walked out of the room. She didn’t offer juice, soda or anything. We didn’t LIKE her. The cafeteria closes at 3 PM .. So Dave finally went to the gift shop and spent eleven dollars on nuts, crackers and a package of cookies. I didn’t leave chemo until 5:30.

I missed my appointment with my oncologist due to all the dominos shifting, so that appointment was rescheduled for next week. Next Wednesday will be another full day starting at 8:30 with a consult with my breast surgeon, blood work, chemo and my oncology visit. Being sick is hard work!

So, my port is in! I have two incisions, one about 1.5” long where the port is in place and another .5” incision on my jugular vein which is where the threaded the lead for the port (I think.) It’s not really painful, just uncomfortable but I am not to do much for several days and no lifting for a couple of weeks.

While I was in surgery, they placed a needle in the port so I would be good to go for chemo. YAY! No more IV sticks or hide and seek veins. Chemo will be a total breeze now. I’m still not feeling any nausea and my only side effects are fatigue and hair loss. I can’t really complain about that, after all, it’s proof that the chemo is working and surely Herschel knows now that he is in DEEP SHIT.

So tired & hungry!

I feel so very blessed to have Dave who is with me always (unless I throw him out of my room like I did yesterday!) He made the unfortunate mistake of telling me to “settle down” which didn’t set well with a hungry Darlene. Fortunately, he didn’t go far. And when I woke up from my nap, he was there, by my bed, staring at me. Mama says I need to be nice to Dave and I know she’s right. After all, where on earth would I ever get another guy who makes me laugh every day AND pulls my underwear up for me when I can’t?