Monday was a busy day with surgery and a flurry of activity. Here's a recap...
1pm echocardiogram - when you get chemo, it can be hard on your heart, so they want to make sure your heart is healthy. The "echo" tells them what they need to know. It's a simple 15 minute procedure that is very similar to an ultrasound.
2:15 arrive for port surgery. A port is a device they put inside my chest. They connect it to my jugular vein so that when I start having the chemo infusions, they won't have to find and then stick me with a needle in my arm.
I discovered that the port is completely covered by my skin. I thought I would be able to see it, but no. It does raise my skin a little, but it's not at all visible. When use, the nurse will put a special needle inside to delivery my chemo cocktail.
6:45pm - I was out of surgery and spent the evening at my nephew and niece's house because I wasn't allowed to be alone throughout the night. They treated me like royalty and I think I may fake a sickness to get invited back. :-)
A day after the surgery, I was certainly sore, but I wasn't in pain. They prescribed pain medicine, but I didn't need it. There was a bigger bandage, but I was allowed to take it off after 2-days.
Veins - as an aside, I have the tiniest veins, so it can take a nurse or phlebotomist many tries before they find one. But add to that fasting with no water for almost 18 hours, it makes finding my veins impossible. Your veins shrink when you are dehydrated. Your veins also have valves that prevent something from coming in because they are working really hard to pump blood without water.
With the help of a vein finder, the first nurse tried in my arm and hand and my veins refused to cooperate. She could see one in my hand, but it kept moving when she inserted the needle. Then nurse #2 tried and after several pokes, she found one but my valves wouldn't let her go any further. So this time they called an anesthesiologist to find it. After many jabs, he finally got it. The back and forth with the nurses and doctor lasted for about 45-minutes, delaying my surgery. The same was true when I had my colonoscopy. I was the first patient for the day and it took them an hour to find my vein and put their entire schedule for the day behind.
I asked the anesthesiologist if there were any preventative methods for my future surgery. He gave me some advice which I will take and if you have the same problem, you might want to talk with your doctor. He said that fasting before surgery is important but for someone like me, he said I should go ahead and drink water (water only) and only stop about 3-hours before surgery. I should let the nurse or whoever is checking me in to know this. He said an empty stomach is better during surgery because it prevents food or liquid from coming up during surgery, but 12-hours is a safety precaution, not always a requirement. So go ahead and be safe and don't drink anything, but if you have issues like I do, see if an exception can be made.
SHOUT OUTS: Surgeon Dr. Viscusi, nurses Amanda, Cindy, Naomi, Eileen, Anesthesiologist Dr. Esparza
Link Knowledge: More about ports