Another needle? Really?

I went for my echo this afternoon. It went ok until they decided they wanted contrast to my heart better. That meant Jenn the human pin cushion was stuck again with a needle and had more fluids put in her. They tried my hand at first since my arms look like hot messes, but eventually decided to try my right arm. The guy got it in the first try. Yes, I'm getting more used to the needles, but doesn't make them any better. That puts this week's needle tally at 4. And I'll have at least 2 more IVs this week because of the pet scan and my port. That's right, the dreaded port has been scheduled.

I have to get to St. Francis South by 6:30 AM on Friday for my port and biopsy. I'm hoping they give me plenty of happy drugs so that I have no clue what's going on and basically "sleep" during it, just as it was when I got my wisdom teeth out. I'm expecting to be pretty sore after waking up. I'm sure I'll have a future blog post on this topic.

Then, after the echo, I drove up to Fishers for my dentist appointment. You know you've had a rough couple of weeks when getting a cavity filled is the easiest procedure you've had all day. No biggie for me since I've had my share of cavities. A month ago, I would have been nervous for this; this time, I was sadly looking forward to it. Hey, if I had to see another doctor, at least I knew what was going happen.

The next few days will be quite busy, but then I'm hoping this weekend i won't be too sore from the port and biopsy and can have a good weekend. I thought I was going to start chemo next Thursday, but Dr. Shorty's office called to set up an appointment just to go over my test results and said I couldn't have chemo that day. I will probably call next week to double check that.

I've gotten words of encouragement from a few strangers who saw I posted on a Hodgkin's site on facebook. That's really nice. One woman has been in remission for 12 years; one's husband just got through it; and one's young daughter battled it about a year ago. I've also been talking to a co-worker who recently finished chemo and radiation for breast cancer to see what her experiences were like. She even had a picture of a port up on her page for me to see. It looks weird, but as long as it doesn't hurt, i'll be cool.