All is well!

It took a little longer than expected with my surgery today because they are required to first do a COVID-19 test prior to any surgery requiring anesthesia.  With all I've been through, I've gotten fairly used dealing with pain, especially pain that is temporary.  But I must admit that the Covid test is really not any fun at all.  They stick that thing all the way up and down your nose until you can feel it coming out in your throat!  It tickles in a weird/bad way and is very uncomfortable as it goes all the way down.  And just when you think it's over, it's time to repeat the process on your other nostril!

Thankfully they have the new rapid test there at Northside and can get results in just a little more than an hour.  At about the 1 hour 20 minute mark, the surgeon (Dr. Levy of Northside Radiology) came into the room to describe what was going to happen during the port replacement.  But given that I still had not heard the results of my test, I asked him.  His immediate response was "Oh you're positive".  "What!?!" I responded.  He went on to explain, with a wink and a smile, "you're positively going to get this surgery because your covid test came back negative!".  Yup, I'm a victim of my own sense of humor as this is exactly the sort of thing I would say if I were in his shoes.  But all kidding aside, he was great and his supporting team of nurses and techs were among the best I've ever seen!

New port in green, old port area in red, painful area in yellow

I stayed mostly awake during the surgery but felt no pain other than the initial incision.  Post Op was a breeze too; I scarfed down a turkey sandwich, drank a ginger ale, and took home a couple of packs of Oreos and other snacks.  Six hours later as I'm writing this post, I'm feeling the pain set in (especially in the area show in yellow), but it's not all that bad . . . I've had much worse.  It is important though to try to stay ahead of the pain, so I'll be taking another pain pill soon and head to bed.

Thank you everyone who said a prayer for me or sent positive vibes my way during this procedure.  I felt it all!  Between your support/caring and the awesome medical team at Northside, this was a big success and I can put it all behind me.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Port replacement surgery scheduled for Friday morning

So I ended up being sent to Dr. Ronald Trible of Georgia Infectious Diseases.  To him it was not conclusive as to whether I had a port infection, skin infection, or just a subdermal hematoma.  But, given the issues I've been having of late with my port not wanting to show a blood return (something not previously reported here), and given that I am just 2 weeks away from my next scheduled round of chemo, he said that probably the best thing we could do would be to replace the port.  Considering that I had already gone longer than most patients getting Yondelis, this feels like the right answer to me.  I especially like the fact that my chemo schedule won't slip!

I was also given a prescription to a more powerful antibiotic: Linezolid.  This will be of great benefit if what I have is either a port infection or a skin infection.

Surgery is Friday morning at 11:00am.  I'm not expecting this to be a big deal, though I am expecting to be sore for several weeks.  The best part though is that now I will have matching scars on both sides of my chest!

Florida Vacation, Infected Ports

Hello from sunny, hot, and humid Florida!

Siesta Key Sunset

That's right, Holly and I went on a quick vacation over the July 4th weekend to Siesta Key (just south of Tampa).  The beach was beautiful and the weather was nice, but nothing is really going to feel the same until the darn coronavirus thing is over.  With bars closed and us not daring to eat inside at any restaurants, pretty much the best we could do was takeout . . . and the occasional patio breakfast.  We did our best though to social distance and wear masks when appropriate.  Given that coronavirus cases were/are spiraling out of control there in FL, I'm just happy to have gotten back home safely and, two weeks later, still be virus free!

To be clear, we might be virus free, but apparently not infection free.  It turns out that my chemotherapy port (surgically implanted in my right chest) appears to be brewing an infection.  I noticed several days ago that something was wrong because the skin was reddish in color and very sensitive above the port. 

My oncologist (Dr. Ummed) took a look at this last Thursday and confirmed that this was the early stages of a port infection.  He also pointed out that he has seen a number of port infections specifically with those getting Yondelis.  In fact, he added, I've gone longer (1.5 years) than most of his Yondelis patients with avoiding a port infection.  He then sent me to the infusion room for IV antibiotics and home with a prescription of oral antibiotics. 

As I write this post (three days later), I'm unfortunately not seeing any improvement.  In fact, it seems to have gotten slightly worse.  So I'll definitely be following up with Dr. Ummed tomorrow.

Barring some sort of miracle, I think that ultimately the port is going to have to be removed and replaced with a new port, this time in my left chest.  Normally I wouldn't be all that concerned about this sort of thing, especially since it is "common" with Yondelis patients.  But given this coronavirus thing that's going on, I really would prefer avoiding the hospital and surgery at this particular point in time.  Oh well, it's out of my control, and I'll just have to do whatever I have to do to rid the infection and stay on a chemotherapy treatment schedule.

Oh and one more fun fact worth mentioning: it is not possible to Yondelis administered by direct IV; you must have a port!  Why?  Because apparently Yondelis is very dangerous if it enters your body outside of the bloodstream.  The port guarantees that the Yondelis goes straight to the bloodstream whereas the needle with an IV could possible move outside of your vein during the 24-hour infusion process.  Think about it, you have to take your chemo backpack to bed with you at night.  Can you be sure you don't roll over strangely or do something to cause that needle to penetrate outside your vein and have Yondelis go directly into your body?  The port ensures that you don't have to take that risk . . . though it can get infected.  Always complications!

That's all for now.  I'll be sure to keep you posted with the outcome of this port issue.