The days are cruising by
now that I only need to visit the clinic once a week. This week's trip was very
productive. I had my clinic visit at 9:30, they drew blood for labs and gave me an IV bag of fluid.
Over all, numbers continue to be good. Only two weeks until the T+100 day
biopsy.
I have a monthly breathing appointment with the respiratory department. They give me a medicine, which is technically a chemotherapy drug, orally. I have to breathe it through a vaporizer. It only takes 10 minutes and I get a blow pop when I'm done, so it's one of the more fun locations of the hospital.
After that I returned to Interventional Radiology to have the central line removed from my chest. It has been three months to the day from when they inserted it. I was more than ready to be done with the three leads dangling on my upper chest, having to keep them flushed, changing the dressing that covered the insertion point, and having to cover the site when I showered. The only trade-off is they will have to stick me each time they need a blood draw now.
I was told by the scheduler that I would get IV sedation for the procedure, so I wasn't able to eat anything that morning. When I arrived at the prep area, they asked me if I wanted to do the procedure with local anesthesia or with IV. A surprise trick question I thought. If they offer IV sedation, there must be a reason. But with just local, I could go right after the procedure instead of waiting for an hour more. It seemed simple enough, just a cord to yank out.
So I manned up and said to just give me the local. The shots of lydicane were the worst part. The only issue, the Dr. explained, is that there is a small ring on the tube just inside your skin which acts as a barrier for bacteria. Your body will add its own scar tissue to the foreign body so when you go to remove it, you have to tug pretty hard.
The pain was minimal during the procedure and the line was removed! The site just needs a few days to heal and it should be as good as new. There was definitely some discomfort after the shots wore off, but all worth it. I celebrated with a nice bike ride in the evening with Joanne. Now I can sweat it up and not worry about the line.
100 days (well it will be 99 since I go on Wednesdays) just two weeks away.
