first week down

Well, the first week is pretty much down, because in two hours I go to the Cancer Center to have this chemo drip removed. This week I got a dose of Cisplatin on Tuesday and then since Tuesday I have had to carry around this bag of chemo (5-FU) that continuously drips into my body. I would have liked to have posted earlier, but this drip makes me feel really nauseous and tired--so I haven't felt the greatest.

I have been blown away by the amount of support for my blog though! Watch out Perez Hilton, my number of hits are getting pretty high. Seriously, I enjoy reading everyone's comments and wish I had the time and energy to tell each of you how nice they are. I think I have said this before but the silver lining in all this is knowing how many people truly care about you. I hope I can repay the favor one day.

Tuesday was one of the biggest days so far. In the morning I had the port put in. It is a pretty simple surgery, but all surgery is scary, especially when it takes place around your heart. What a port is, is basically a permanent IV except instead of going into a vein it goes directly into your heart. The 5-FU is so strong, that it could corrode or destroy a vein if injected into it. Instead, it needs to be sent right to the heart to be distributed to the body.

The surgery involves carving a little piece of of your breast where the port goes. Then, an incision is made near the very base of the neck into the major vein that goes to your heart. (I think vein and not artery-- veins take blood to the heart and arteries away?) The doctor then threads a wire down to where the vein meets the heart. Then, over the wire a catheter is placed. Lastly, the catheter is bent at the top to meet the carved out portion of the breast where the port goes.

The same doctor who did this did the PEG-tube surgery, which I will describe later because it is a little cooler. I have to say that I have never really had too much of an interest in medicine, but I have grown to appreciate it a lot more.

After the surgery I went and got radiated for the second time. I expected all the sedatives from the surgery to still be in effect while I was being radiated, but I got really claustrophobic again and had to be given a shot to be sedated. Every day since then though, I have take two valium and have been fine. I will try and post of a picture of me being pinned down to the machine by my mask so you can get an idea of how claustrophobic it would be. Also, starting on Tuesday and for every day onwards, I get a shot of a drug called Ethyiol which is designed to protect your salivary glands--without it most people lose their salivary glands.

The last part of Tuesday was the Cisplatin injection and starting the 5-FU drip as described above. The people at the Cancer Center were amazing. As far as personal treatment goes, the nurses at the Cancer Center have been as good as you can get, and that makes all the difference when going through this.