A Milestone

 Thursday, February 7, 2013

Today really is a milestone for me. This morning, I presented myself in the surgery center at 6:30 am and was prepped for the first surgery of the day with my surgeon to have my feeding tube and port removed. I am SO happy to have the extra hardware O-U-T! My port never did work well. If is was used again after a few days had passed, it would be plugged up with a fibrous membrane over the little tube in my vein and had to be de-clogged with a $500 medicine. Every time chemo started up again, we would have to wait an extra half hour for the medicine to open up the catheter tube so we could begin. In face, one time, the started me on the IV for a jump start. Because of that, the port was only used for the chemo, all the other blood draws were done by the normal poke in the vein method. You know, I am tired of being poked.

Taking the tube out is really a very simple process. They just pull itj out. They usually just do that in the office. It gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it, so I am very glad that I could have it done at the same time as the port removal. They don't even stitch it up. The hole in the stomach will seal up in less than eight hours and the outside one in about 48. They don't put a stitch in because of infection since the hole has had access to the outside of the body. 

Since the port was clear under the skin, it took a little longer with stitches being used inside. They just put steri-strips on the outside which wear off in time, no stitches needing taken out. 

I am now learning what I can eat, and what I can't, what tastes good and what doesn't. My mouth is still very senstive and anything spicy or acidy hurts. so I am going for bland foods. I try new things to see how they work and I am learning to chew again. Mostly, if a food is bland and wet I can eat it. Thinks like canned pears, cottage cheese, chicken noodle soup, cheesy broccoli soup, potatoes, carrots and canned peas in white sauce. 

Meat doesn't work very well yet. It is all about learning to manage food and my tongue all over again. However, I am making progres in this area in leaps and bounds and I'm working on volume. I did lose some more wight during this process, but I don't want to lose too much. And with food comes strength.

There are some funny things that have happened in this recovery process. I was going ot do a separate post about some dream I had during chemo, but I think I'll just put them here:

Two really funny things from my chemo brain

Saturday afternoon I heard Lynette's voice as I was waling from a nap, eyes still closed, and I thought, "It must be 4:00 Lynette is home from school wow, I've had a two hour nap." When I sat up, the clock said only 3:00. I started to sputter as well as I could with my limited speaking skills, to ask why Lynette was home from school so early. My mom and Lynette looked at me in utter disbelief as they announced, "This is Saturday!"

I went back to my nap.

One night, I poked Jim in my sleep and he woke up and asked it I wanted something I shook my head and we went back to sleep and I poked him again! He asked again if I wanted something and I didn't. I happen a third time and Jim was really awake this time and asked why I kept poking if I didn't need anything. I was awake too, and I think this was what was going on, I was dreaming that Jim was saying, "If you need something, let me know." And I was "letting him know", all in my dream. Since it was all a dream we both went back to sleep and there was no more poking. 

Another really strange thing that happened was when the hair on my arms and legs was starting to grow back in. One day, I noticed bumps all over my arms and legs. Looking closely I saw little round circles just under the skin. It looked like ingrown hairs and I poked at one with a pair of tweezers. Sure enough, here the hairs were growing round and round just under the skin. I pulled some out with the tweezers and otherwise just scratched or rubbed the rest. I think they are eventually working out themselves as time goes on. 

And yes, I know you people would liie to see a picture of me with my hair on, but i won't take the time today. I'd like to have a picture taken before it gets any longer and it curls. At least, it is supposed to and m sister-in-law gave me tips on how to help it when it gets a little longer. It is long enough, (a little over an inch) that it sometimes needs combed down. 

Especially my crown that want to stick up, combing or no combing.

I mentioned in my last cancer post how long it is taking for recovery. My family felt like it was taking too long, and I was despairing of every feeling normal again. Even the doctors said it was taking me longer than they expected. However, it is supposed to take a long time. There are things that we didn't consider, that the effects of chemo and radiation can take a year before they are better. The main things I am dealing with now, is lack of saliva and taste, and fatigue. The lack of taste makes it hard for me to want to eat. The fatigue is the result of radiation to the frontal lobe of my brain and could last up to a year. The taste issue will get better in time and we just have to wait and see about the saliva.

However, this week I have been feeling really good. I've been putting some extra effort into getting things done. I've been splitting a couple of hours between house work and office work int eh morning. AFter which I am really pretty tired so I can sit down and rest before lunch getting that out of the way and resting again before making supper. I'm pretty tired by the time to go to bed, and I'm really not doing a whole lot, but I have to make a start. 

This feeling like a disjointed post, but sometimes life is like that.

February 7, 2023 - The port site was completely under the skin on my upper left chest. To use it, a good sized hooked needle was poked through the skin into whatever was under there to access the catheter tube. I was given some pain killer lotion to rub on, but by the time all the nonsense of opening the tube was finished, it was worn off and the nurses never seemed to care. Probably, I should have said something. I was truly tired of being poked.

About the feeding tube, they told me if it every comes out it would need to be replaced in that eight hour window, or it would close up.

4 comments:

The Chairman's Wife said...

Good news from you! Happy continued recovery!

February 7, 2013 at 9:20 PM

Bonita Sure said...

Wow! Sounds just like my sister-in-law again! So glad you could ditch the extra appendages. And the best part is that you don't NEED them either. 

February 8. 2013 at 10:04 AM

The J's said...

I am so happy to read this! I love having you able to feel like connecting again on blog and FB. It's really been quite the year but I think it sounds like you're doing great. Hopefully a longer/slower recovery time will mean helping you not to over-do it. 

Thankfulness is a wonderful thing.

February 8, 2013 at 4:57 PM

Anita said...

Glad you got the tube and port out. I have an abdominal surgical drain pulled like you described...while I tried not to watch. Thankfully, it was very fast, but it was an odd sensation. It was amazing how fast the hole healed. Our bodies are pretty amazing!

February 12, 2013 at 8:46 AM