Pain Management

Yesterday I went in for the catheter line placement. It turned into a long ass day for sure. My appt. was at 10:30am but the Physician's Assistant who places the lines was running late because the other PA called in sick. SO.... I ended up not in my surgery until 1:30pm!!!! Waiting is not where I am strongest for sure. I totally understand the whole being sick thing and I sure appreciate that someone would not come in sick but man, they should have called me too and not had me come in till 2 hours later or something!

Then we had some issues with deciding on placement. I still have my port on my right side which I guess is the side that is best for a catheter line because the line does not have to travel as far around my thyroid and such (I am not totally clear on the path that this catheter takes... I sort of tuned out sometimes). Also, I have had radiation to my left side so they felt that some scar tissue may get in the way of proper placement. They would not know till they got me on the table and under an ultrasound. So it was possible that during the surgery they would have to stop and call my doctor and then decide to take my port out. This was a shock and a panic for me because I use my port quite a bit so that they do not have to draw blood from my finicky veins in my arms and also, some of you may remember, but getting this port in and healing from that was quite a project for me.

So on to the surgery we went and I was getting what they generally call these "twilight" drugs. Well, that can mean many different things but the end result of that is that I was AWAKE THE WHOLE TIME and FEELING IT!!! They used lidocaine (sp?) to numb up the area but when they were putting the line in it really really hurt like crazy. It is absolutely totally F'd up to be awake for me during things like this. I was being pumped full of drugs the whole time but for some reason they were not making me fall asleep. F'D UP!!!

So, in the end they placed the catheter in my left side and did not have to remove the port. But, holy crap do I hurt. This thing is painful right now to say the least!

So, then I was all pumped up with drugs and HUNGRY!! I was not able to eat or drink the whole time because of the procedure. We quickly ate something in the cafeteria and then on to our "catheter line care training" and another two neopogen shots. We did not leave Moffitt till about 5:30pm and we were exhausted!

Mom has been taking care of me wonderfully. We got back to the hotel and then had to run out and get us some groceries and get my antibiotic prescription filled. She also picked up some Indian food which was so yummy and good! We needed some good food after that day!

Sleeping was difficult because I can not really move or even swallow without this thing hurting like crazy. I am managing on a lot of pain meds which really don't always make me feel good either in other ways. I would wake up though like clock-work every 4 hours which is exactly when I could take more pain meds.

Now today we are off soon to go back to Moffitt. They put all of their stem cell transplant patients through a 1.5 hour psych appointment. That should be lots of fun today. Then at 5pm... two more shots of the neupogen.

Tomorrow is the day of "harvest."

***Many of you are wanting the address to Moffitt for when I am in there which I will be looking up for you soon. Please know though that when I am in the hospital I can not receive any flowers or plants at all. They will not even let them on the floor. It is because I will not have an immune system at all and could not battle the bacteria that travels on plants and flowers. Also, I will be on an immuno-suppressed diet which I will explain more later but it may be hard to send me food and definitly nothing that is homemade. I know, such a bummer.