The Portacath is in.

After completing my entry about Mt vernon last night, I feel there is more I should add before telling you about the port being fitted.

After a good few hours of blogging I decided to go through to the ward and watch a film (The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo for those of you that want to know). It was a fair sized ward but only 5 ladies were there for the night. Two ladies had chemo treatments that would be going on until just after midnight , Shirley who was having the port in the morning too and Margaret who had been in for a few days.

I didn’t really speak to anyone at this time as I was a bit zoned out after blogging for so long, so just got myself into bed and stuck my headphones on. This was a relief actually as the machines that infuse the chemo make a very monotonous whirring noise and beep a lot, and it’s still a bit close to the end of my treatment for these sounds not to affect me, watching the film drowned out the noises and took my brain somewhere else for a bit.

At about 9pm I decided to stretch my legs and go to the loo, on my way out I met June (one of the ladies having treatment till the early hours). We ended up having a lovely chat and I discovered that while I was in my blog zone earlier I had totally missed her awful allergic reaction to her chemo which was why she was still hooked up to the machine.

I really enjoyed meeting June, she had had Ovarian Cancer 2 years ago and had recently had other tumors discovered in several other areas and was having treatment again. After my comments on my earlier entry about finding it difficult to talk to people in this very situation, I found June so refreshing, she has a very similar outlook to me and is definately not a “victim”. We talked for ages about all sorts of things, illness related and non illness related, all I can say is I can finally understand how people see me as inspiration as I found June to be the same and really enjoyed meeting her. We chatted some more in the morning and all I can say is her family are blessed with a wonderful woman. Thanks for your company June x

So onto the procedure. At 9.30am the Doctor came round with a consent form for me to sign to allow the operation to take place, then straight away I was given a premed and a jab of pethadine in my bum cheek before being whisked over to radiology.

I felt very relaxed and a little bit light headed but didn’t feel at all anxious (the drugs were doing their job well). I was wheeled into the radiology suite and transfered over to the operating table.
They explained once again exactly what would be happening and said they just needed to get prepped before they could begin. They then proceeded to scrub me with iodine and alcohol then covered me up with blue sheets with just my chest area and my face poking out. At this point I was most nervous about the local anathestic injection as I knew that would sting.

The jab wasn’t that bad after all and it definately worked as I had no pain during the procedure at all. There was lots of weird tugging at my flesh and the surgeon kept complaining about the disposable scissors they have to work with not grabbing the thread and not cutting properly!
The staff in there were lovely, chatting about all sorts of things like butterflies being released a friends wedding and of course Pampered Chef (the xray lady had recently bought a food chopper and was singing its praises!).

The whole procedure was done in 40 minutes and I was back on the ward an hour after I left.

I have the feeling of a stiff neck (as if I’ve been laying in a draft all afternoon) and the two sites that have been cut open are tender and I feel a bit bruised and battered, but nothing a paracetamol won’t keep on top of.

So I rang Jay to come and collect me and I was back home by 1.30pm. All ready for my first Herceptin treatment to be administered on Tuesday, 23rd November.