Port Implant

Happy New Year!
Well we rang in the New Year hanging at home watching TV and playing Wii with Dan and his girlfriend, Cassie who came to visit for the weekend. Ed still does not have any serious side effects from the chemo so we are thankful for that (knock on wood!).

Today was Ed's surgery for a portacath. Here's a couple pictures of what a portacath looks like...


And how it is used...

These aren't great pictures, but you can Google "portacath" if you want more information. But basically, this will allow IVs to be given via this port instead of through a vein in Ed's hand/arm. And with regular chemo, this "saves" your veins and you don't need to worry about your veins collapsing. An added bonus is that this can be used to insert dye if you need a CT scan, etc.

Ed's surgery for the port implant was scheduled for today at 2 PM with us needing to arrive at the Kittredge Surgery Center at Cooley Dickinson at 12:30. However, Ed got a call yesterday and he was rescheduled to earlier in the day (which he wanted) to 7:30 AM. Now that doesn't sound so bad except we needed to be there at 6:15 which meant we needed to leave the house by 5:45 at the latest!! Yes, 5:45 AM!! So I was up at 4:45! Oh well, I guess I can function on a few hours of sleep!! I am thankful that we had less than a half hour drive (at least it's less than a half hour at 5:45 in the morning!)! And I guess, now that I think about it, we certainly didn't have to worry about things running late!

Now I'm very lucky to be able to say I've never had to use the Kittredge Surgery Center, but I can tell you I was QUITE impressed with not only the beautiful place, but the staff there were incredible as well. From the warm, welcoming gentleman at check-in, Ed's nurse Gail, his surgery nurse (sorry, can't remember her name), his anesthesiologist (Dr. Goswami), the two "girls" (Kate and Heather) who took his chest x-ray, and, of course, Dr. O'Brien--they were all so warm, friendly, patient and took the time to explain things and be sure we didn't have any questions and even took the time to joke and laugh. When I was first sitting in the waiting area I was impressed by the beautiful space and how welcoming and comfortable the waiting area was, but by the end of our visit, I was also very impressed with all the staff working there. What a wonderful team!

And they were quite efficient! Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 and at 7:30 on the nose they wheeled Ed into the operating room. They have this very cool, large screen "SmarTrack Family Board" in the waiting room where you can monitor a patient's progress. So at 7:30 the board indicated "Ready for Surgery". By 7:40, status had already moved from "In OR" to "OP in progress" and by 7:45 the status was "closing". Less than 5 minutes later, Dr. O'Brien was standing next to me in the waiting room to let me know everything was done and I could go back to see Ed in recovery! Heck, I didn't even have a chance to even begin going through the work I brought with me to read through!

We then spent the next hour in recovery, monitoring his vitals, getting instructions, etc., and we left around 9:15 and he rested/slept most of the day. He's a little achey, especially his left arm and shoulder since the port was inserted in the upper, left side of his chest. So recovery is to take it easy, tomorrow remove the bandage and shower, watch for infection, and next week Dr. Bower's office can use the port for the chemo! Just like that!

I have to say I'm relieved. This was another major event/milestone on the calendar and I know I was fretting about it (although I wouldn't tell Ed that). I mean it's surgery--sure minor surgery--but still. I'm relieved that the surgery went well and that the whole experience was as positive as it was. Who knew? I guess so far we've been so lucky to have encountered all the great doctors, nurses, and staff that we have. Maybe all the good ones do outnumber the rotten apples that you tend to hear more about.

Next on my calendar...getting Dan off to Italy on Tuesday, then Ed's next chemo appt on Wednesday using the port. And then I think life returns to our new "normal" (whatever that might be). But the last month has been a whirlwind--from the colonoscopy (can you believe that was just a month ago?), to the diagnosis, to the first chemo treatment, to Christmas, to more chemo, to New Years and now to this surgery! Phew! It's hard to believe it's only been a month.

So now, I just need to focus on making sure Dan is all set to leave for Italy next Tuesday. Then I'm hoping we can settle into a new, less stressful routine with "just" chemo every two weeks. I would never had thought 4 weeks ago that "just" having biweekly chemo would be less stressful. Who knew? But I am thankful that this is all we need to worry about at this point and I hope and pray it continues to be this "boring".

Happy New Year and may 2010 be a safe and healthy new year to all of you who are supporting us on this journey. Know how much your good thoughts and prayers mean to us!

Here's Ed wondering why in the world I've got my cell phone out (because I didn't bring my digital camera, of course!)

I even got him to smile for this one!
There must have been something good in that IV they were giving him!!