Adventure

Adventure I'd rather not have.

Lately I've been facing trouble with my port. If you're not familiar with them, it's kind of like a central line. I have a button under the skin in my chest and tubing that runs up and over my collar bone into my heart. I think that's the basics of it. They use it for my chemotherapy so they don't have to do so many needle sticks for IVs in my arm, plus the first four treatments of adriamycin are the more toxic chemo so they don't like putting it straight into the veins.

My last adriamycin three and a half weeks ago had to be put in through an IV. The nurse was having trouble getting a blood return from my port unless I turned my head. The IV wasn't dripping unless I turned my head. Basically she didn't want to put in a toxic chemo without being able to see it and know if it was going through or not. Adrimycin is given from a large syringe and pumped in separately instead of dripped in with the other IV bags.

Last night I looked at my neck in the mirror because it just hadn't felt quite right all day. It wasn't painful, just different. Well, the side of my neck that has the port was swollen enough to be visible. I ended up coming to the ER last night about 10:30, spending the night in the ER having a CT scan done and finding out I have a blood clot in my jugular vein in my neck. It's caused from my port (probably).

I've spent today in the hospital. I'm on shots to thin my blood since they can't give me coumadin until after I have surgery tomorrow to remove the port. They aren't putting another port in. They will just give the last 11 chemotherapy treatments through an IV. It's the less toxic of them so they are okay with it. I will be on blood thinner for three months until chemo is done.

Nothing has been ordinary!