My Cancer Journey

Friday, February 2, I had a pre surgery check to make sure I was healthy enough for the upcoming surgery. They take your vitals and blood. The port-a-cath is very convenient in that the person drawing your blood does not need to find a good vein. That day I found out that phlebotomists are not trained to access a vein through a port, so she needed to draw my blood through a vein in my arm. All the tests looked good, so I got the okay for the lumpectomy (partial mastectomy).   The following day I was able to start using adult toothpaste. My mouth was no longer sensitive! More news - I was excited to have hair growing on my head again, but that was not the only place it had started growing. There was still no hair on my legs or armpits. That was fantastic! However, a few hairs that had been growing in a couple of moles on my face were back. Even though I had the moles removed many years ago :( I would have preferred my eyelashes and brows were back instead :/   Thursday, Februar...

A port, short for portacath or subcutaneous (under the skin) port, is a small reservoir that is attached to a catheter, a thin, soft, flexible tube. It is implanted under the skin to allow easy access to veins. They don’t have to find a good vein, because they know the port feeds directly into one. The needle goes through the skin into the port, and the drug goes through the catheter into the vein. It makes it much easier to administer drugs or take blood samples.  When you have cancer they test your blood very frequently to make sure you are okay. Some need chemo infusions every week for twelve weeks, some, like me, get them every three weeks for eighteen weeks. For some of us the infusions don’t end after the chemo. I will be given Herceptin infusions for a total of one year. This will hopefully prevent the cancer from coming back.  Some choose not to have a port placed, but to get a new IV in the arm each time they get an infusion. Sometimes it is difficult to find a vein t...