sky's Cancer Blog

September 25, 2007

I'm a pincushion. Hear me say Ow!

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I met with my oncologist today and also had another dose of wonderful Aredia. The bone scan results were basically, well I should say, partially inconclusive.

The lesions on my right hip and mid-back haven’t changed, but the radiologist isn’t sure about the lesions on my sacrum area. He thinks they’re growing but he’s NOT sure.

My oncologist, based on her years of experience, has decided to NOT change my treatments until we were sure. She’s scheduled a bone and a PET scan two months hence.

My doctor explained that it’s sometimes difficult to assess the condition of the bone lesions because, well, you’re dealing with bones and the changes are slow and sometimes hard to tell.

So, here’s how I feel about the results: Well, I have no feelings about it. Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet, but I’m thinking that, for now, it’s status quo. If there is a change in the new lesions, well, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

The highlight of my day (and I’m being very sarcastic here) was the needle sticks. I got stuck seven times. For me, that’s a record. Until today, the most attempts made were six. My veins are practically invisible so the nurses have been sticking me on the back of my left hand. They’ve had the best luck there. They can’t use my right hand because I had a mastectomy on that side so they’ve had to make do with the left, which really sucks because I’m a lefty.

I think part of the problem was that I was a little dehydrated. Anyway, I went through the usual routine of warming up my hand with a heating pad, etc., but no such luck this time. My veins apparently have had enough.

The first couple of times was to draw blood for lab work. The nurse couldn’t completely fill the vials so she commented, “They’ll just have to share the blood.” LOL I love her sense of humor.

The rest of the attempts were for the IV. Ruth (I love her name!), the lead nurse, finally had to take over and use the vein on the inside of my wrist. It hurt! But, well, not as bad as I envisioned. I think my imagination ran away with me and I was picturing wrist slashes and blood gushing. I think I watched too many horror movies while I was young. LOL Ruth was very good to me though. I knew it was difficult for her to have to make the choice of using that vein.

I had a port before but it was removed in 2003. This time, I finally, FINALLY, remembered to talk to my doctor about having a port installed. So, the procedure has been scheduled for Thursday.

Here’s hoping and praying that, on Thursday, they’ll find a good vein on the first attempt.

Posted on September 25, 2007 at 5:22:25 PM by Grace ( I'm a pincushion. Hear me say Ow!, 1 comment)

I feel your pain. I hate having blood drawn from my hand. I am glad you are having the port reinstalled. I still have mine but it will be removed in December(when I get my silicone gel implants). You are in my prayers.

Melissa

Posted on September 25, 2007 at 7:14:13 PM by melsamei