Psych!

Friday started off as expected. Lisa and I headed to Overlake at 9:00 for my 10 am check-in and got right into my room, even though they weren't quite ready. The expectation was that I'd be prepped for the port surgery and have to hang out for 2 hours before the procedure at noon. My friend Mariah arrived just after I got into the beautiful hospital gown and then the waiting began. Luckily I had all that company because the surgery before mine was taking longer than expected which meant that I would not be done in time to start chemo. Ready. Set. Wait.

On one hand, I was relieved (Mariah was really concerned about be doing both on the same day) but at the same time, I was mentally prepared to get things rolling. After conferring with the nurse I decided to continue with the port surgery and start chemo next Friday. My options were to go on Monday...which wouldn't work as I have arranged my schedule to do it on Friday's...or to get dressed and have chemo that day and the port the following week.

After talking to Cory, I apparently made the correct choice. Had I started on Friday, the way it scheduled out, I would've ended up having chemo on Christmas Eve...now...it's New Year's Eve. I usually stay home that night anyway, so no worries.

Back to Friday. Finally at 1:30, just as Kevin was calling to find my room, they wheeled me away.
I woke up at one point during the procedure to tell the surgeon "ow, that kind of hurt." He laughed and said "I thought you were asleep." "I was" I replied, "but I just woke up." Next thing I knew I was waking up again as they were wheeling me out.

I have two incisions on my left chest. The smaller higher one was to thread the catheter, and the larger one was used to create a pocket for the port. It's a very strange hard bump in my chest with three little nodules that act as guides for where the needle gets placed each time for chemo.

Here I thought I was going to look like Borg with an external, visible piece of hardware, but it's all under the skin. Very odd looking.

I'm sore. The incisions are looking good, but sting a bit, and there is some pain in my shoulder and along my collarbone. I found that I need to be careful to not flex my neck muscles or chest wall otherwise...ouch! Overall it's not unbearable. I'm still icing but am laying off the Tylenol now.