The Adventure Begins

On Monday, 8 Feb, I went to Interventional Radiology to have my Port-A-Catheter and PEG installed. These procedures were to be given under conscious sedation, which means I’m awake, but so drugged out of it I shouldn’t remember a thing. They lied. I remember it all. I didn’t feel much, but I remember it all. The operating room was ice cold, they gave me the usual open backed gown and let me keep my socks on (like that was going to keep me warm. They did put a blanket over me while they prepped me for the procedure and we waited for the doctors. They shaved my upper right chest and shoulder, and then washed it off with ice cold alcohol. Then they opened up what seemed to be a large paper sheet with plastic adhesive sections. They tore off a section of the paper revealing a clear section probably 12 inches by 12 inches and pressed that on my chest, neck and shoulder. They started the happy juice and a few minutes later told me I was going to feel a slight prick on my lower neck just at my clavicle. Prick my ass! evidently the happy juice hadn’t quite taken affect yet. They fiddled around that area for a while and then started 4 or 5 inches below that on my chest. They made an incision there which I didn’t really feel and they inserted the port and snaked the tube to my vein. They checked it all out and sewed me up. Then they started on the PEG. Same procedure, shaved the left side of my belly about 6 inches above my belly button and about 3 inches to the left. Again with the ice cold alcohol and the plastic piece. Then they told me they were going to insert a tube in my nose down my throat and into my stomach. I told them I’d had the camera done the same way to find the tumor on my tongue and they said the tube was smaller, so it shouldn’t bother me too much. Right ! They sprayed some stuff down my throat that was supposed to numb it so I didn’t feel the tube, it worked to some extent. I could feel it at the back of my nasal passage and right where my throat and esophagus meet up. It wasn’t terribly uncomfortable, it just felt like something was caught in my throat and I needed to swallow a lot. Then started the poking and probing into my stomach. I won’t go into the gory details, but there was a lot of “you’re going to feel some pressure now,” statements. This all took about 2 hours and left me with a tender sore shoulder and a very tender stomach with a 8 inch tube hanging out of it.

They brought me up to one of the ward and gave me a nice room to myself with a view. A nurse and a tech came in and introduced themselves, took my vital signs and hooked me up to an IV bag. Then I was told I couldn’t eat or drink anything for 24 hours. This was around 3:00pm. I hadn’t eaten anything since 7:00pm the day before and hadn’t had anything to drink since mid-night. Terry hung around until about 6:00pm they headed home to feed the dogs. Around 7:00pm I got a room mate, an Air Force basic trainee in for a hernia operation. He was a bit groggy and went through the nurse, tech introduction drill like I did a few hours earlier.

Every 3 hours someone came by and checked our vitals and asked what our pain level was on a scale of 1 to 10. I was somewhat uncomfortable, but declined any pain medication. I guess the pain medication hadn’t worn off from the procedures earlier in the day. About 10:00pm they came by with my cholesterol medication, so I told them I’d take some pain medication then so I could fall asleep.

About that time my room mate got lonely and decided to strike up a conversation. He was an Airman about 19 – 20 years old and had just graduated from basic training. He is waiting to be shipped off to his technical school in Monterey, California. It was a little interesting the 25 year, retired Chief Master Sergeant and the newbie Airman swapping stories. He’s a good kid and will probably go far, if he stays in. I let him use my cell phone to call his parents and let them know he was doing well.

I did sleep, but only in 3 hour stints. I’m not used to sleeping on my back and after so many hours of lying on my back it was getting a little uncomfortable. Oh yeah, at 10:00pm they also decided to strap some leggings around my calves to prevent blood clots. These things were hooked up to an air pump that inflated the leggings every 40 seconds or so. They held the air for just a few seconds then deflated. I still managed to get some sleep.

Around 7:30am they brought my room mate his breakfast, I got a mouth full of water and a pill. We were both scheduled to be discharged sometime during the morning. We all knew that I had a 2:00pm appointment for my first chemo therapy. I was discharged at 1:50pm and high tailed it down one floor to the Oncology clinic.

I checked in and took a seat in the waiting room, I had a splitting headache, I think due to lack of coffee. My plan was to be discharged and go down and get some coffee. That obviously did not happen. One of the nurses came and got me, put me in a very comfortable recliner and went over the procedure. First I was to receive a dose of Benadryl and a dose of Nexium, these were to fight off some of the side effects of the Erbitux. They hooked me up, offered me a Girl Scout cookie, which I turned down, but sheepishly asked if they had any coffee. The nurse said she didn’t think so, but she’d check. Ten minutes later she came back with a large steaming cup of coffee. She went and made a pot just for me. I think I’m going to like these folks. Once the Benadryl and nexium were administered they hooked up the bag of Erbitux. Being as it was my first session, I got a double dose and it was going to take 2 hours to administer. I was told to let them know if I was feeling any side effects immediately. Once the coffee cooled enough to drink I downed about ¾ of the cup, that eased my headache to a manageable level. The Benadryl kicked in and made me drowsy and I drifted off for about an hour and a half. About that time Terry showed up to collect me, I was the last one left in the therapy room, and then they told me I needed to be watched for another hour. They brought me to another location on the floor, set-up in another recliner and we waited an hour. No side effects, they let me go home. I’d been in the hospital 33 hours.

We went home, had some dinner, watched a little TV, I took a Percocet and slept through the night.

At 4:30am the alarm went off and Terry got up to get ready for work. I gingerly got out of bed, went into the kitchen to make Terry her lunch and decided my stomach hurt just enough where I wouldn’t go into work. I finished making her lunch, popped a Percocet and went back to bed.

So, I’m officially in therapy. Next Tuesday I start radiation . . . the adventure continues.