Biopsy Day

I woke up this morning about 4:30am, thankfuly pain free. I couldn't have anything by mouth after midnight so I wouldn't have been able to take the vicodan if I had been hurting. It was an encouraging start after such a frustrating and scary day yesterday. It again reinforces my feeling that Lipitor makes the cancer hurt more.

Got to the hospital around 8:00am, got checked in and found out my doctor was the same guy who had put my last port in 5 years ago. He didn't remember me, but his name is so distinctive, I remembered him. When the CT scan room was available, they started the IV and wheeled me in. They strapped my arms to my chest to keep me from moving around. The numbing injection was wasn't that bad and the only slight bit of pain was that final push positioning the needle. After taking several samples I had to lay there and wait 15 minutes with the sample needle still in (didn't hurt) while they checked to make sure they were good enough. Lucky me -- they got good samples the first time.

Then it was off to the surgical room for the port implant. That went pretty similar to the first time around. A little stinging with the numbing agent and a bit of pain when they push the needle into the jugular vein. Then just holding still while they get the port stiched into place and everything sown up. The assistant tried to sedate me into unconciousness but I was awake through the whole thing again. She was really surprised that she hadn't knocked me out.

Back to recovery for some apple juice and I was dressed and discharged with follow-up instructions. I was pretty woozy and thought I might barf as we were leaving the parking garage, but fortunately that passed. Felt better after some coffee and something to eat. I've got a sore neck and it looks like the tape they used is irritating my skin so I may need to change the dressing earlier than I wanted to. Not sure what to use instead either. And when the numbing agent wore off from the biopsy, the groin started to ache again. One vicodan took care of that for now.

Now 2 more days of uncertainty... imagining the worst. Waiting is definitely no fun, except for those moments that I can tell myself for a little while that it may not be a worse case scenario.