The Day After..

I'm not going to lie, the night was rough. I was a sweaty and cold mess thanks to the Bleomycin and on top of that I had to use the toilet about a dozen times due to all the glucose water and the fluids I'm supposed to drink. I am expected to drink about 3-4 litres of clear fluid a day to help flush all of the toxic junk out of my body. This morning I woke up with dry heaves, heartburn (a common side effect of this cocktail) and a splitting headache that has lasted all day (I finally got a hold of someone from the clinic and they explained I could indeed take Tylenol in this situation...better to find out late than never I guess). The queasiness has subsided and I am just about to have some soup and more apple juice and water. I am doing alright. Actually, I am also supposed to take my anti-nauseant in an hour so I should just get better and better. I am trying to catnap today as I slept so poorly the last few nights. My hand is less swollen and sore today as well (where they tried to get the iv in). All in all, I can feel myself slowly starting to perk up and feel like a human.

A note on the port. I am happy to be getting it given the stress of yesterday's iv insertion. It's just a bit tough to think about another surgery right now, putting more stuff in my body (this time anaesthetic and more pain meds), and giving up another day with my kids. I know it's the right decision but it also is a bit creepy how it works (creepy but cool). Basically they make an incision in your chest, just above your heart and place the port under the skin. Then they take a catheter and insert it into a vein in your chest, with the tip of the catheter sitting at a point just about the heart. Once the incision is healed, all I'll notice is a small bump under my skin. Then when I go for treatment, they will access the port by sticking a small needle into the port through my skin. All I should feel is the pricking of the needle going in and then voila, access!
Benefits of having the port: another groovy scar to match my neck scar, no more oopsies by the nurses, ability to lift over 10lbs (whereas with a PICC you are unable to do so) and no dangly plastic lines for the kids to pull at (PICC). Negatives: having to have surgery to get it and having to have surgery to remove it.

Well just found out we are having company in like 20 minutes ('tis the season), and I'm sure I'd look and feel a lot better with a shower!