My Cancer Story: Waking Up to A Surprise

I am not exactly sure on the time frame from when I was listening to that amazing Irish accent to the next thing I remember. I am pretty sure that my pain was being well treated because when I woke up and was clear minded enough to know I was awake and could thus remember a little bit about what was going on. I was slightly confused. Alright, so I was really confused. Upon waking up I noticed some discomfort in my chest on the right side of my body so of course I had to know what that feeling was. Since I would need something that could be accessed regularly for chemotherapy and frequent blood draws, which I was really excited about because I hate needles and having to get poked everyday would really suck!), I had a Hickman catheter inserted into my chest.

What is a Hickman catheter? Well I shall tell you and if you find it hard to understand just google it for a visual image :) A Hickman is a catheter that is inserted into the jugular vein in the neck and goes toward the heart, and then the other end is threaded over the clavicle bone, then exists in the right upper chest area. Mine had two tubes that split from that one catheter but there can also be three tubes. Well, why don't I just see if I can post a picture for you so that you get a better idea of what it is. 

http://s9.beta.photobucket.com/user/taser1984/media/nosmoking/Hickman_catheterMedium.jpg.html

Voila!!

This catheter makes it a little safer to administer the large doses of chemotherapy because chemo is deadly if it leaves your bloodstream. It is a poison after all. 

So that was a pleasant surprise to wake up to, except that someone neglected to tell me that when those lab people come into your room at the wee early hours of the morning, usually when you have finally fallen asleep, they cannot actually use that port to draw blood. Only nurses can do that. So every morning I ended up getting stuck with a needle to get my blood drawn. My excitement for having that nifty little catheter dissipated after learning that harsh reality. I may have been a little bitter because of those needle sticks but in all honesty I usually ended up with a phlebotomist who could never just stick me once. So, I believe I had that right. 

The next thing I knew, this hoard of people in white coats came galavanting into my room. It is my team of doctors, for this rotation anyways. So, I got to be introduced to a whole bunch of medical students and other types and what nots, only so that I could be introduced to a whole new group in a couple of days since I arrived close to the end of the rotation period. There was a new rotation every month, but after so many rotations it would start all over so those from the first cycle came back around.  These people had the nerve to always come into my roam like a herd of elephants just as I was falling back into a wonderful sleep after being stabbed by the phlebotomist, seriously that is what some of them did, they took that needle and stabbed it into my arm, and if they didn't hit a vein they pulled the needle just far enough out so that it did not leave the skin so they could angle that little sucker in another directs to stab it again until they found what they were fishing for. 

Through time these doctors and med students grew on me. Some of them I came to like, some not so much, and others I just could not understand what they were saying.

The downside to being in a place where the doctors constantly change is that I did not feel like I had a doctor that was fully invested even though I was assured that I did. I just felt like I barely ever saw him. But for someone who takes a while to warm up to others it was hard not having the same doctor to discuss stuff with day after day. The upside to the rotation was that if there was a doctor that was not my favorite I knew he or she would be gone within a month anyways :)

My oncologist was quite the character. He kind of reminded me of a cross between Santa and Professor Dumbledore (the original Dumbledore) from the Harry Potter series. He had this really long grey silvery beard that matched the color of his hair, which was always pulled back into a ponytail that reached down to his lower back. Just upon looking at him that first night I was at Fairview I knew this man would be a very interesting and probably a fun doctor to have.

https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/dec09/87466/a_velomobile_for_two.html

Throughout the years Mom and I got to know this Dr. Hammerschimdt (a.k.a. The Hammer) better. And boy was he interesting, my favorite type of person.

This picture is Dr. Hammerschidt in his velomobile, which he took everywhere. You can see how my vision of him as Santa really was not far off. :) This was one of the first things he tried explaining to me about his life outside of work. It was hard to picture until one day when Mom and I were walking about and saw it parked by the bicycles next to the building. But it is not a bike and if you refer to it as one The Hammer will correct your rather quickly.
What is that weird contraption he is driving? That is a velomobile. It is kind of like an enclosed tricycle but in reverse?. It has 3 wheels, 2 in the front and one in the back, where as a trike as 1 wheel in the front and two in the back. It is all powered by one's own legs.  This was the second thing that led me to believe that this guy was going to be a fun doctor to have.

Because there are many things that I do not remember during some of these posts, such as the last one, my mom has expressed that she would like to corroborate with me in filling in some blank areas so that sometimes I can have a post that fills in some of those unknown areas and clear up some things that I am a little fuzzy on.

Topic for the next post: Chemotherapy. Oh the joy.