Sitting in Chemo

David Poncelow — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:54:00 +0000

So at the moment I’m sitting in the chair getting pumped full of my first round of chemo drugs. It’s been pretty painless- as I’ve come to expect, everyone here is extraordinarily friendly and helpful.

I started with a trip to see my oncologist- all of my tests came back fine. The possible stress fracture that showed up in my bone scan is somewhat concerning (though only in terms of a stress fracture). Shouldn’t be much for healing, but I need to cut back on my running. Not that I’ve been good about running or will likely have much energy to run too far. As Dr. Milder said: ‘it should be self-regulating’. So I’ll go to a running store, get myself fitted with some shoes that support me right, and try to keep my activity level up. I’ll probably join a local gym this weekend too. As I went through my divorce and that deep depression that ensued little helped more than regular exercise- I think that probably holds true now as well.

Yesterday I got the Port-a-Cath placed- the surgery was, as always, better than I had feared. It’s so easy to build up anxieties and fears, so difficult to let them go.

It was strange- this procedure was done under local anesthetic. I got some drugs to make me less anxious, so I’m sure I was less lucid than usual but I really was pretty aware of my surroundings and kept participating in the conversation all the way through. When they were talking about something spooling in my ventricle I was able to ask about it. Apparently they actually feed the tube down into the heart and pull it back so that it is positioned right above.

Again, I was treated exceptionally well. With all the conversation, warm blankets and kind words I feel almost spoiled when I come in.

The chemo is just about over- I’m getting flushed out right now. It’s been a bunch of different drug switches, but no pain, no discomfort. Dr. Garnett left the port ‘accessed’ for me when he put it in, so there wasn’t even a needle punch today. One more source of uncertainty and doubt crossed off the list.

Z80 - The Diagnosis Is Not Consistent With The Gender of the Patient: Sitting in Chemo

Sitting in Chemo