Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Medical update, sort of...

When I started the blog I thought there would be constant medical updates we needed to report to a lot of people in an efficient way.  It turns out that there are rarely medical things to say, though there have been and will be periods of intense medical activity, like when I have major surgery and whatnot...

Friday I am scheduled to get a chest port placed, to administer chemo into a larger vein and preserve my smaller veins.  I was supposed to check in at 5:30 a.m. in Portland, which required us to reserve a room at the hospital guest house for Thursday night.  Avoiding leaving home at 3:30 in the morning was the civilized thought.  The first thing the guest house manager told me was that we cannot go there if we are sick, as people who should not be exposed to bad germs are staying there.  So, of course, Jon and I both caught colds.  I had to cancel the overnight, as I am really not interested in paying for any of the nice hotels nearby the hospital to make it reasonable and worthwhile to do the early check in.  Our surgeon was nice enough to reschedule for late in the day, and allow me to get the port placed in time for my chemo next Wednesday.  The down side?  No food or drink from 8 a.m. on to the procedure at 4.  I am trying not to whine.  I eat often, and alot, and fasting is not my thing.  Sigh...  I am not whining.

On another, cheerier note, say what you will about what a wasteful time suck facebook is (it is, I know), but I was very happy to have it yesterday, as I was having a lovely morning chat from my living room looking out at the Columbia River with a friend working for the Foreign Service in Cyprus.  I have to say I am appreciating virtual contact more and more these days.  I spend a lot of time alone, talking to my dog...  My friends here happen to mostly be teachers, and I had the bad timing to be lying around having chemo starting in September.  Again, I am not really whining about it, just reporting.  These same friends would be the first to point out that I can be kind of an anti-social loner anyway, so it's not like I have had a complete and total life change.

The port placement should be no big deal, except for the probable several days of no swimming.  This too shall pass....  That's all for now, and no foul language either.

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