Bone Marrow and The Port

While waiting for the diagnosis of the cancer there was still a lot of things we had to do to get ready for whatever type of Chemo I would be getting. The first step I was told was that they would be taking a Bone Marrow sample to make sure the cancer had not spread to the Bone marrow so on Friday March 9th my amazing father took me in and I was sedated and a small sample of bone marrow was taken. I was nervous about this appointment because I had always heard negative things about giving bone marrow but was surprised that the procedure was very fast about 15 min and I was put out using the same stuff Michael Jackson used. It was nice because I woke up without that groggy emotional feeling and was able to recover fairly quickly and get sent on my way. The healing was a little tender however I would not say I was ever in any pain so that was so nice!


Tuesday March 13th was the Date when they put in my Port. Now a Port is devise that goes under your skin at the collar bone area into the vain. While this sounds gross and I am still very squeamish about it I am SO grateful for it because it allows them guaranteed access every time and as I had stated before they have a very hard time finding my vains even at this appointment to get the port when they were trying to give me the IV for sedation they blew out the vain in the right arm and it took ultra sound and 2 techs to finally get the IV in so despite the gross concept of having something kind of large imbedded into your collar bone vain the fact that they can give me IV fluids, Chemo, and draw blood from it with only one quick poke, AND I have a numbing cream that I can put on an hour before the poke so I don't even feel it. It is SO nice!!!!

This is What the Port looks like none of it is visible it is all under the skin however I was excited when I discovered that it was my favorite color Purple!!! 


























Here are a few pictures that show how the Port sits in my skin and how they feel to access it. 

This is the access needle that is used to Give my Chemo, Draw blood, and give me IV fluids. 




The nice thing about this access is with doing Chemo 4 days a week and on fluids 5 they can leave it access the whole week which means even though with the numbing gel the poke doesn't really hurt its still just one poke instead of one a day. 

The Staff again was super nice even though I was nervous they were gentle and kind! The procedure took a little longer then it normally does but still only about an hour and They gave me this cute little card at the end which I though was so nice! After everything I have been though I have to say that IHC Hospitals are SO AWESOME the staff has always been so kind to me and when your going through something scary it makes such a difference! 

Of all the things I had done the healing with the port was the most sensitive It also doesn't help that the blood thinners made the healing look worse then normal. But like a said despite the fact that its mentally still a little gross to me knowing, and sometimes feeling it in there I am grateful to have it and suggest it to people I meet along the way who will be undergoing Chemo everyday it just makes it a little nicer! :)