Monday, April 25, 2011

Port Inserted Today

We arrived at St Agnes Medical Center at 7:00 AM.
I met Joe Cerillo, a longtime colleague with whom I have worked 20 years or more. He is a technologist who works in interventional radiology. He told me he just completed chemo for non-Hodgekins lymphoma. He had a port which was recently removed. I wonder if his disease is the result of radiation exposure. For that matter, I wonder if my condition is also caused by radiation exposure. I know there is a relation with sun exposure.
I met Dr. Nguyen, an interventional radiologist. He has placed more than 300 ports. He likes to place them in the subcutaneous tissues of the right upper chest. That was fine with me as the left jugular vein is scarred by the radiation treatments. The procedure went off on time and without incident. It is a duel lumen power port, meaning that there are actually two ports to inject, so two drugs which may not mix well can be injected simultaneously. It is capable of receiving injections from a pressure injector such as the type used to inject IV contrast for CT scans. It looks like it is made of plastic so it will not interfere with CT or MRI imaging.  The port itself sits on my upper right chest wall. The catheter is tunneled to the lower neck where it enters the jugular vein.
Thee procedure was completed by 10:00 AM and I was able to leave shortly after 11:00 AM. It is now 1:00 PM and there is no pain from the incisions. I have no memory of the procedure itself, due to the effects of Versed and Fentanyl.
Joan Rivers described "Jewish Natural Childbirth" as follows. Put me out with the first pain and wake me up when the hairdresser comes.
This was the "Jewish Port insertion."
As I will not begin chemo until Wednesday, I will have a buzz cut of my hair tomorrow. That way, I will not have to worry about sweeping up falling hair.
I hope to post a picture of myself tomorrow, pre chemo with a buzz cut.

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