Postby starbuck30 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:40 am
So I went in for my CT yesterday. As I had my 5FU pump hooked up, and they didn't use a Power Port needle because we didn't know I'd be getting a CT when they placed the needle, they had to stick my arm. Pre-dx this would've upset me to no end, but since dx I've been stuck w/so many needles as long as I don't look and they don't have to move it around, I'm okay. So they tie off my arm, get their kit ready, swab the area, etc. I look away. I feel the needle go in and... "huh, what happened here?" I look up at my friend since I still don't want to see the needle and he shrugs in confusion. The nurse, Russ, again, "hmmm... what on earth...?" I say, "what? What's going on?!" Russ says, "I think your vein exploded." My vein did WHAT? I finally look down and the area is a little puffy, but doesn't look TOO ba- oh God there's blood everywhere! I look up at Russ and say, "Ah, is this something I should be CONCERNED with?" He says he doesn't think so, wiggles the needle around in my arm a bit causing light-headedness and more waves of nausea than I'd been feeling from the combination of fasting and 5FU. Then says, "I THINK I got it, let's see if we can get a blood return and if it flushes okay." It does, so they tape it down. We do the CT (I never had one done during neuropathy and my hands and feet were ON FIRE). They take the needle out which HURT like never before, the other nurse sagely offers, "it must've been up against a nerve". I just want to get far away from these people who, although very nice, have obviously been hired to kill me. My friend and I walked around looking for his car for half an hour since he couldn't remember where he parked and I hadn't come with him (I came with my dad but his car broke down in the lot so he was trying to get that worked out while my friend took me home). Whoo boy, what a day for us all.
My arm hurts today like an S.O.B. but I can more than live with that. The good thing is, in the midst of all the craziness, scanxiety was definitely a distant memory. Just waiting on the results now, and I may be tempting the fates here, but I got a good feeling about them. Come on results, let's do this!
2/26/10 Dx'd colon cancer
3/12 complete colerectomy, temporary ileostomy
3/19 pathology came back Stage IIIC CC
4/2 started FOLFOX
Chemo "precautionary", last CT showed NED PLEASE God let's keep it that way
9/16/10 FOLFOX finished! Woo hah!