As I write this, John has just been taken into surgery to have a port placed in his chest for use in future infusions. The decision to do this was made yesterday after he had some major issues during infustion and could not finish the last 20 - 25 minutes. He's just had so many "pokes" by now between blood draws, infusions, scans, etc. and they're having a very difficult time getting a good vein to use. Yesterday the infusion leaked into the tissue in his left arm, causing severe pain (on a scale of 1 - 10, he said it was an 11). After two injections of Dilaudid, the pain finally subsided and was bearable. Of course, after that, he was too wobbly on his feet to walk back to Hope Lodge, so they called Security to transport us back.
The great thing about the port is that it can be used for not only the chemo infusions, but also blood draws & the contrast used in the various scans he gets. Hopefully, his days of being "poked" are over. And, as soon as he recovers from the procedure, we can go right to Infusion and have today's treatment....the port can be used immediately.
Here's looking forward to less stressful infusion days.
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