Port is In

I'm hurting a bit today. It's the last day of school though, so I'm sucking it up with the help of my extra strength tylenol. I had my surgery to get the chemo port inserted yesterday. It was way different that the first surgery. I was calm and relaxed and joking with the nurses and doctors. Before I went to the hospital I put on my favorite bathing suit top and outlined it with a pen so the doctor knew his parameters for placing the port. He thought that was so ingenious that he showed everyone in the operating room and said he was going to advise all of his patients to do the same thing. It just seemed like the logical thing to do - if I don't tell him where I want it how would he know? Once I was in the operating room, I was completely covered from head to toe with a big blue plastic sheet. There was a little window on the right side that I could look out. Whenever one of the nurses wanted to talk with me they would pop their head through the window. I was given drugs through the IV and didn't feel a thing even though I was awake the entire time. The doctor made an incision on the left side of my neck through which he inserted a catheter which connected to my vein and made another incision a few inches below my collar bone where he inserted the port. The entire surgery lasted about 45 minutes. When they were done, one of the nurses had me sit up and asked how I felt. I said I was a bit tired but OK. He handed me my bag of clothes (I was dressed from the waist down) and led me to the dressing room to get changed. I put my shirt on and felt really woozy. When I came out of the dressing room I had to lean on the wall or I would fall down. The nurse led me back into the operating room and had me sit down. I remember saying I really need to lie down. The next thing I knew I woke up back on the operating table surrounded by 3 nurses. I'm pretty sure I said "I told you". So I laid there with my head below my feet for about 10 minutes before we tried the whole routine again. This time, I was wheeled to the car for my mom to worry about me passing out. I pretty much stayed on the couch for the rest of the evening and then went to bed. I feel fine today, except for the pain at the surgery site. I'm hoping by tomorrow it will pass.

In foob news, I've been waiting and wondering and watching for 7 weeks now. The big question has been "will the nipple survive?" Well I'm happy to report I finally have the answer to that question. And the answer is... sort of. Sort of because all of the tissue did not survive, so it's much smaller than my other nipple. In fact, it's more of a nubble than a nipple (you know, kind of a nub of a nipple). There's definitely something protruding where the nipple should be, so that is good news. And no Friends fans, a nubble is not the same thing as Chandlers's nubbin - refer to wikipedia if you are confused. So the foob continues to heal and hopefully yesterday's surgery will too. I'm attending a chemotherapy class tomorrow to learn more about what to expect and then Wednesday, June 23 is the big day when my treatment begins. Thank you for all of your notes of encouragement and your prayers!