Monday and Tuesday were pretty busy days for me as I had my Bone Marrow Biopsy on Monday and that was an interesting procedure. They do not put you under with anesthesia, but they use some other type of medicine that makes you forget everything and not give a rats ass about a thing, fun stuff…(If I were Michael Jackson that would have been the drug of my choice, not Propofol). Everything went well, and I won’t know the results on the bone marrow until I meet with my oncologist this Friday, stay tuned. My left upper ass cheek was pretty sore from the biopsy, but it is getting much better. If they find cancer in my bone marrow, my cancer will be in stage 4. If this is the case my treatment does not change, it will be 6 months of Chemotherapy, the only difference between stage 3 and 4 is that if it is stage 4 there is a higher chance the cancer could come back.
Tuesday was my surgery for the installation of my Port-A-Cath. Here is the definition of Port-a-cath: In medicine, a port (or portacath) is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein. Under the skin, the port has a septum through which drugs can be injected and blood samples can be drawn many times, usually with less discomfort for the patient than a more typical "needle stick". My left chesticle is pretty sore from the surgery and I am a little stiff, but the pain meds help out most of the time. It is kind of weird, I have been getting hick-ups from the port-a-cath, and apparently air can get under the diaphragm causing you to have hick-ups. I have had hick-ups 3-4 times today and they are pretty annoying, luckily they don’t hurt where I had surgery. I am posting some pictures of the port-a-cath so you can have a better idea of what it looks like.
Overall I am doing very well, and again it is amazing how many people have called, text, emailed or messaged me. It really keeps me positive and I will always be so grateful and appreciative of the amazing friends and family I have. The Chemotherapy will start either next week or the following week, so the journey hasn’t really begun yet, but I am as ready as I can be. I give much thanks to my fiancé Rachel who has been a trooper through all of this thus far. I feel like I am the luckiest guy to have her in my life and she has been taking very good care of me!
A small side note that I was really concerned about was that cancer usually attacks your reproductive system first. I was really nervous going to the sperm bank to be analyzed and to see if I was fertile at all. Well...needless to say I am exrtremely fertile! ;)
Kelly, We are thinking about you everyday. Thank you so much for doing this blog so we can keep updated on your treatment. You have so many friends caring about you and this is helping with our therapy too. Keep your head up!
ReplyDeleteKelly, I think of you everyday and know that this is a hard road to go down....hang in there! You are on your way to "kicking cancer's butt" now. Sierra's heart sank when I told her about you going through this-"He is such an awesome guy, I just want to hug him." She says she is glad you have a port (it is a pain at the beginning), but the alternative (she's had both) is a hickman line, which dangles out of your chest and is a royal pain. "With a port, Kelly can swim and at the end when it comes out he can make a necklace with it!"So, that is Sierra's bright side-she still has her port necklace. She ran to the store and put together a care package for you- I will bring to the office. We love ya, man!
ReplyDelete