(just above coma - nice!)I forgot to mention that I did have a little fainting incident on the way out of the hospital after my permacath insertion, but then again I'm a fainter so what else is new. I'm also a low blood pressure kinda gal, but this day my BP dropped to 52/65, normal is about 120/80 – my normal is about 70/100 if I'm lucky. So I Lay down had some toast and peanut butter and was sent home. On the way home I begged Mum to stop for chips, Pringles. I never eat chips, I'm a chocolate girl… little did I know my body was craving salt.
I ate the whole tube for dinner. In the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom and almost fainted again. In the morning I almost went down again when the nurse came to change my bandage, again with the low BP. So we called the hospital and they asked me to come in so they could investigate the permacath but really only found a fast heart rate and very low BP. The doctors decided to start me on hydration at home the following day.
A paramedic friend of mine suggested it might be something called a vagal response, which as something to do with the Vagus nerve getting compressed and lowering your pulse and BP at the same time which causes you to feel faint. I looked it up and the spot on the nerve is right above where my Permacath enters the artery in my neck. Maybe it’s pushing on that?
On the way home from the hospital I placed what was likely my 10th phone call in two days to the CT scan booking office asking them where my CAT scan was. They said they didn’t get the request from the coordinator (no shit) until the day before, but they could squeeze me in on the 12th. I asked her to read the part again about it being urgent that I have a scan before the 12th because I start chemo, and they asked me to come right over. So we turned the car around and drove back to the hospital.
I drank the contrast dye over the course of two hours prior to the exam but the technician couldn’t get a line into me to inject the dye. And they are not allowed to use permacaths for dye. I still did the scan, but I was disappointed that the scan will not be as detailed as it could be. When these things happen I feel so disappointed in myself, I can’t help it – damn my veins for giving out on me, damn my low blood pressure, damn my fainting, damn my cancer. The ultimate betrayal was the cancer, so I feel like my body owes it to me not to let me down with all the little things.
3 comments:
hey tamara! i know, my port is really unusual - every time i had a new nurse or was seen by a doctor who wasn't my primary, they would freak out a little bit... it actually took a little searching by my oncologist to find a surgeon to agree to place it on my ribs. i have a friend who had hodgkin's about 6 years ago and got the idea to have it placed on her side because she didn't want to have a scar on her boobs, and wanted to be able to go to college formals without having her port stick out. my surgeon traced my bra before surgery so that it fits right under the band. it rubbed a little right after it was put in, but now i don't even notice - and all of the hardware is under my skin. i have a prescription for numbing cream so i can't feel it when i'm accessed.
as for my treatment, i'm on kind of a weird regimen. I was supposed to be on 6 cycles of ABVD plus radiation, but since my mom had breast cancer, my doctor didnt want to radiate my chest. I ended up doing 6 cycles (12 treatments) of ABVD plus two weeks of steroids and a week of Procarbazine (oral chemo) each cycle in place of the radiation.
what treatment are you on? how much longer are you going? i hope it's all going smoothly!
i'm SO thankful to my friend sarah for telling me about her side port - i never would have known to ask for it! every time i'm contacted by a girl who's just been diagnosed, i make sure to tell her about it, and i think my oncologist is going to start recommending it to the girls she treats - i hope it'll start a revolution!
i was confused about the steroids as well - i was hesitant about taking them, but apparently they help shrink tumors. i'm the only one i know of who takes steroids for hodgkin's, but i guess for almost every other cancer, they're a standard part of treatment - it seems really weird, though...
i've always been curious about the BMT - i never really knew how they worked, but they do tons of them at the hospital where i was treated... i hope it goes really well! do you know how long you'll have to stay in the hospital once you hit phase 3? i know its awhile, but i hope that it's not too long! i like all the diagrams you're putting up - i wish i'd thought about that, because a lot of my friends get confused about what i'm talking about sometimes...
i was so happy to be able to get out to the big party - i'd bought a dress far in advance, and was nervous that my counts would be too low to go! i always love a good party :-)
I feel your pain on needles not going in when they're supposed to. I also vagaled (60/40), though I didn't have a port (I had a PICC in my arm, though it looked similar to the diagram you have up). They tossed me into ICU overnight for it with an oxygen mask - the works.
No words of wisdom or anything useful, just a little empathy.
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