Yesterday I had my Port surgically implanted.  Everything went very smooth early in the day, but we hit troubled waters by midday which descended into an evening of pain and misery. Luckily, we seem to have weathered the storm and are back to kicking cancer’s ass.

I know that every cancer journey includes days of pain and suffering. I consider myself very lucky to have had fewer of those bad days than most. But I think a lot of today’s misery could have been avoided.

 

SURGERY

We went into Norton’s early yesterday morning with a 7:30am call time for our 9am surgery.  As usual, they took us back shortly after arrival.

Our nurse who prepped me for surgery was extremely nice and very helpful in explaining the procedure and what to expect. I wasn’t in the waiting area for very long before they wheeled me back to the operating room.

Unlike my biopsy where I had met Dr. DeWeese previously and he consulted with my family, I never met yesterday’s surgeon until I was actually lying on the operating table. He seemed very nice and showed me a sample Port of the type he would place inside of me, and explained the procedure in great detail.  He also told me that unlike my previous surgery, I would NOT be totally knocked out, but would be in “La-La Land” – which I found somewhat scary at the time.

I shouldn’t have been scared though. Because almost as soon as they told me they were starting the drugs, I don’t remember a single thing after that. So for me, La La Land meant falling fast asleep and not waking up until I was back around Luis.  The surgeon told me he sometimes has patients awake and talking to him throughout the whole surgery! That was not me. ZZZZzzzzz….

Luis got a chance to see me woozy and out of it. Unfortunately for him, if he was hoping to hear something embarrassing, he did not (to my knowledge) get to indulge.  Instead, I woke up asking about how my work stuff was going and trying to get him to logon to BetAmerica and check the contest lobby for me. I think this says something pretty disturbing about me, actually.

Shortly thereafter, I got dressed and they released us, without the benefit of any pain medication.

 

AT HOME

We drove home and ate some lunch. I was starving since I hadn’t been able to eat any breakfast before surgery. I was still woozy from the drugs, so I was feeling no pain. And then, I fell fast asleep for several hours.

I woke up around 4pm in a MASSIVE amount of pain.  I don’t even know how to describe how badly I hurt at the site of surgery other than to say it felt like I was completely on fire.  I’ve had many different types of aches and pains throughout this now 2-month cancer journey, but nothing prepared me for this type of pain.

Not wanting to be a complete wuss, I took a couple Tylenol 500mg tablets, hoping this would take some edge off.  No luck – it didn’t even touch it.

I started making phone calls looking for some proper pain medicine. I called my general practitioner, but the office was already closed. I called Dr. Stevens’ office. They said it’s not their ‘policy’ to give pain medicine for Port placement surgery.

I took a short meeting for work around 5pm and then headed straight to the Emergency Room.

 

EMERGENCY ROOM

So what happens when you send a cancer patient to surgery and don’t offer proper pain medicine?  In this situation, that cancer patient who has a severely low White Blood Cell count ends up spending 5 HOURS in the Emergency Room dealing with pain management.

The most frustrating and frightening part of the ordeal was having to sit in the Waiting Room of the ER for over 2 hours waiting to be seen.  I am under direct orders from my oncologist to not leave the house even to go to the grocery store because I am so susceptible to getting an infection.  And yet their “No Pain Meds for Port Placement” policy forces me to possibly the most infectious place I can possible imagine.

I took a facemask and tried to sit as far away from the sea of sick people as I possible could, over in the pediatric waiting area. I was nearly ready to give up on Norton completely and take my chances finding pain pills west of 9^th Street when they finally called us back.

We spent about an hour in the room being monitored before they finally – mercifully – gave me a pain pill.  It almost immediately took some of the edge off. Still pain, but at least I could watch Ninja Warrior on the TV and not feel like I was being repeatedly stabbed with a hot knife.

What we were told is that normally, people don’t experience my level of pain with port placement.  However, after they spoke with my surgeon, they learned that because I am so skinny, they had to stretch my skin much more than is typical, which led to the much more severe recuperation pain.

Luis and I left with a prescription for some pain meds to get me through the next couple days. I took a couple pills when I got home, which helped a GREAT deal, and went to sleep shortly thereafter around Midnight.

 

CLOSING THOUGHTS

And then I woke up at 4am, which is kind of usual as chemo wrecks my sleep schedule. Lots of pain again, but took another pill and feeling a bit better.

Frankly, I am disappointed in my entire medical team today – especially Dr. Stevens’ office and their policy of no pain meds for port placement.

The simple fact is that I should have been prescribed proper pain medicine after surgery once they realized they had to take extraordinary measures during the procedure which they knew would lead to pain more extreme than is normal. But especially when I asked for it later in the day from Dr. Stevens’ office, I should have gotten it.

Instead, I had to put myself at severe risk by sitting in an infectious Emergency Room for hours trying to deal with pain control. I hope to God that I didn’t pick anything up there which will delay my treatment. I fear Dr. Stevens’ policy puts other patients like me at the same risk, which I think is pretty scary and totally unnecessary.

 

That’s all for now. My next Chemo appointment is this coming Tuesday.  I also have my first consultation with Dr. Stevens since treatment began last month, so hopefully I’ll get some type of progress update. I should also get my next couple chemo treatments scheduled. I’ll also get a new White Blood Cell count on Tuesday. Hoping for a rebound.
Much love,

Merv