I made it! ...Almost

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Well, this was supposed to be a celebratory post declaring my exit out of the chemo program!  And I am still exiting, just not until Monday. Wouldn't you know it, one last re-scheduling of my Herceptin appointment!  Because administering Herceptin is quick and easy (no expected reactions and an hour of "chair time") it makes it a simple appointment for the over-capacity chemo room folks to shuffle around.  I think nearly every single one one of my appointments has been moved to a new time or date since last summer, so I shouldn't be surprised.  I begged politely that they not postpone this appointment any further, but that I'd take any cancellation available! They were very sympathetic and apologetic, they totally get it : )

Another glitch in the tying up of loose ends as I finish my chemo treatment is the removal of my porta-cath  through which the chemo meds have been administered.  If you've been reading here for a long time you'll know that I had a harrowing experience getting my port inserted in December 2014. At the time it sounded like all kinds of people were toodling over to a different city  to get this done. Well as I've come to learn by the surprised looks on the faces of doctors, nurses and the like when they ask me where I got it put in, apparently it's not quite so common as I thought! And it would seem, and I quote, "No one here (at the Cancer Clinic) will touch it if they didn't put it in."  I remember asking at the original hospital if I would have to travel back to get it out there and they said absolutely not.  Sometimes the medical establishment does not inspire confidence.

Kudos to the oncologist I saw on Tuesday though, he's my favourite so far, he contacted all kinds of people and finally my original surgeon to see if she would do it and that looks slightly promising. Apparently this situation is quite out of the ordinary.  My concern is that since this "procedure" isn't their regular schtick it might take a looong time to get in - and I can't wait to get this thing out!   No one believes me, but it affects the blood flow in my left arm and often just makes it ache and burn and even wakes me up sometimes at night.  I do realize that I'm extremely fortunate to think about getting it out at all. If I needed more chemo this wouldn't be a topic of conversation.

On another positive note, this excellent oncologist assured me that they could and would drug me up as much as I wanted during this removal procedure.  When I mentioned that I was really anxious the first time around and didn't want to be this time, he assured me they had drugs to make me sleepy, drugs to make me happy and drugs to make me forget it ever happened - just mention to the nurses that I'm very anxious... Told you he was my favourite ; )

Hopefully I'll be posting next week from the OTHER side of chemo treatments!

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