The Bee Team

Got a shiny new port and my first infusion of chemo today! After not being able to get into interventional radiology for my port placement on Monday, I was promised I would be at the front of the line on Tuesday. They weren’t kidding! The transporter arrived at 7:20 am and I was still asleep and in my pajamas! I hustled to put on my hospital gown and brush my teeth before he hustled me out of there.

Port placement is an awake procedure where you get enough sedation to keep you relaxed, but you still know what is going on. They do numb the area where they are doing the insertion, which is probably more painful than the actual insertion. You’re also lying on your back on a hard, narrow table. (0 ⭐️ for this part of the process as I still had pain and struggled to breathe in this position having not fully recovered from the pleural effusion.)

From there, I got taken directly to nuclear medicine for a PET scan. This involves getting injected with a radioactive isotope and then waiting an hour before getting scanned. Which involved lying flat on my back on a hard narrow table.

Finally, around noon, I made it back to my room on the oncology floor and the orders for chemo had been placed, so my nurse accessed my port and in went round 1!

When you get chemo, you get pre-medicated with anti-nausea medication and antihistamines. And for the first part of the infusion, your nurse stays in the room to monitor you for reactions. Fortunately, I didn’t have any reactions and tolerated it well.