First Treatment

I had to work today, but only for the morning.  Dropped my wife and Amanda off for her 9:15 appointment for her first Chemo session, and I was back by 12:00...just in time to pick them up and go home...did not leave until closer to 3:30pm.  Nothing EVER goes as planned.

Our daughter's veins:  They struck again!  To quote the head nurse on the Day Ward "these are the smallest veins I have ever seen!"  Took them over an hour to actually get a suitable vein.  Then, because of the size of her veins, they had to significantly dilute the drugs PLUS they had to spend a lot of time between drugs flushing the lines.  It was a long day!

This brings me to then next topic...Chemo delivery systems.  When we talked with Amanda's oncologist, we warned her about this very issue.  She assured us that the nurses were good, but if there was a problem they could insert a PICC line.  We had done a lot of research at this point and asked about a Port, but she kinda acted like this was not an option in her eyes.  A PICC allows the drugs to enter the blood stream just above the heart muscle through a catheter in your vein.  Basically does not allow the drugs to touch the veins directly, but it is rather cumbersome (basically imagine an IV line hanging semi-permanently out of your arm) and certainly not something that goes with that all important Grad Dress!  A Port is implanted just below the skin and also has a short catheter directly above the heart and is usually implanted in the upper chest.  It does show a bit because it causes a small protrusion, but it is sealed by your own skin and allows the patient to be active (swimming, non-contact sports, etc.).

Well, the nurses on the unit commented that the Power Port models are relatively new systems in Canada and a lot of doctors are not comfortable with them - like to stay with the old ways.  The nurses contacted Amanda's oncologist and insisted that she get a port...short exchange later and they won - port to be implanted next week (yay!)

This brings me to my final thought and lesson of the day.  If you need anything done, ask a nurse!  We are on a steep learning curve, but we are learning!