Wednesday May 9th 2018
Today I have my appointment to Chit Chat with the surgeon about getting my port put in. I show up to the Budge Surgical Center and it's like they knew I was coming and to batten down the hatches. I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be so I walked up to the desk and said, "I'm not sure if this is where I am supposed to be", and she said, "it is". Did she have a picture of me? How did she know who I was!? I hadn't even given her my name. "It's that crazy lady that yelled at us last week is coming! The crazy lady is coming"!
I get shown back to a room, go over the SAME questions that I have answered ..... 5 times now in just as many days. Dr Marshall comes in and he is totally cool. He had gone over my charts/history and was like, "wow.... you have been through the ringer the last couple of years"! He went over where he was planning to put the port and so on. He asked when I was doing the first Rituxen treatment. I said tomorrow. He then was like, "when did you eat last"? "I had had a smoothie for breakfast". "Hmmmm. Let's do this today"!
This is one of those times when it is okay for a Doctor to say LET'S JUST DO THIS!
Cindy Mama was having a kidney biopsy done that day so I just had to add another thing to the fray. I went back to work and they called to say I should be there by 2 pm for a 3 pm surgery. They then called to bump the time by an hour. That was very nice.
Ken dropped me off and I skipped up to same day surgery. I'm becoming an old pro at all this. The nurses, "uh...weren't you just here"? Yes.
I only had to wait an extra 30 minutes. They had me back by 4:30. I was under light sedation this time so I remember being there, but it was an hour surgery and it felt like 15 minutes. They heavily sedate you during the really gruesome parts and bring you back up for the end. I felt some of the last stitches. Dr. Marshall could tell because I was cringing. He blamed that on the anesthesiologist. "Dang it Brian!" LOL!
I got back to recovery and only had to wait about a half hour and Heidi came to take me home. I started to just walk out and the charge nurse was like...."Uh.... no! You have to get in the wheel chair!"
SIDE NOTE:
So when I got my first port Carol had told me to get a prescription for topical lidocaine for when they access the port. The nurse at my education said they would be giving me the prescription for lidocaine for the same reason. I couldn't figure out how that would work. What are you guys talking about! I finally figured out that this is not the same type of port that I had before. The wound was never accessed unless it was being cleaned. I always had bandages over my port entrance. So I couldn't see how I would be able to put lidocaine on it.
Now I know.
WARNING SKIP THE NEXT TWO PICTURES IF YOU GET WOOZIE! Actually I found some non gruesome ones.
This is a Hickman Port:
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| Ignore the other writing. This port is always under a sterile dressing with what we aptly named the "spigots" always sticking out. There was no way to put any cream on the wound. The spigots are what they drew blood from and administered drugs through. |
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| Always under the skin. It actually has a chance to heal. This one is healed. |
They actual place a line each time they use it to draw from using a needle just like getting an IV.
NOW I know why Carol said she kept hers in. I never would have been able to keep the Hickman in. And now I see that you can put a cream on it.
It's all so clear to me now. We had two totally different ports placed.
Even when I was going over things with Dr. Marshall I could tell he didn't quite know what I was talking about.
Dr. Marshall really was cool. He even placed the access lines since I was going in the next day that way they didn't have to aggravate a newly placed port.
Job well done! So happy something went well this week!
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| I've got a port Yo! Broke out my old trusty swim suit cover up that I used as a robe during all my other treatments. |
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