Today I was supposed to get my 3rd of 6 Taxotere infusions, but after sticking my arms eight times, it was decided my veins were so flat, that they couldn't infuse me easily. When they do this they like to pick veins on the forearms or on the back of the hand.
Most people are used to having blood drawn where the elbow bends, and that's a much easier vein to use. However, the risk is, that if the Taxotere were to leak outside of the vein there could be complications, the worst case scenario is that I would lose the arm. I wasn't prepared for that risk. Face it, under normal circumstances this stuff is a strong poison, when the nurses administer it, they don protective clothing!
So, we basically punted, ad they will be scheduling to install a portcath to make the infusions and blood testing easier. At the time there were two other patients next to me that had had ports installed, and gave me good confidence this would be a good way to go.
The portcath will be installed Friday Dec 4th. This is an outpatient surgery at CMC Mercy.
Oh in addition, Monday my urologist, talked to me about my right kidney being slightly swolen due to hydronephrosis . He wanted me to have an external port and a drainage bag much like the urinary catheter I once had. However, he did state that my kidney function is at 0.19 (again no units) but this is a better than average healthy number. So I declined the port he was suggesting, and asked that we ultrasound in a month and see if it didn't look better.
266.8 lbs
So happy to finally here from you. Also happy that you went with the port (ugly but so much less bothersome). I think you will be happy with it. My cousin has had hers for 3 years now and she loves it because she hates needles!!!
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