Lyme Log: Port Insertion

Admittedly my posts lately have been a LOT of medical stuff. The reality right now is that my life of late has been revolving around coordinating the next step in treatment as well as going for my Rocephin injections daily. Not much energy is left for anything else, except a little fluffy TV! By Tuesday I had reached my tolerance level for stress and feeling overwhelmed.

I think this morning I finally got most things in place for the surgery, home care nursing, and other such details. I've been to the surgeon's office, talked to him on the phone, had pre-op, talked to the home nursing supply company, etc.

While I was at pre-op yesterday I ran into both my cardiologist and GI doc, both of whom also stopped to chat and check in on things! When my GI doc saw me in The Rolls, he immediately squatted down so that he could talk to me at eye level. I'm still moved by this moment every time I think about it. I've only seen my cardiologist once yet he remembered me and the problems I'd had with my cholesterol meds so far.

These little moments remind me that I've finally assembled a team of doctors who take me seriously. I'm no longer the crazy lady who's making everything up.

The port (a Bard Medi-Port, for those of you who are into these kinds of things!) will be inserted on Monday morning, October 19th. It's a same day surgery that should last about 30 to 45 minutes.

I'm scheduled for the first surgery (arrival at 6 am, surgery at 7:20 am), so this should bode well for me in so many respects. I am also having the same surgeon who removed my gallbladder so I feel very comfortable with his knowledge of my underlying conditions, as well as his competency as as surgeon. (Never have I heard a negative word about this man in all his years here.)

So, only two more shots in the toosh left! I think pretty soon one could play connect the dots if we don't start doing the antibiotics via IV.

I've been alternating between moments of calm and moments of panic over getting everything organized to get the port in place, and just being anxious about the surgery itself. My anxiety meter has been very high the last few days. Guess I need to play that guided imagery CD on successful surgery a wee bit more!

I know that so much of the anxiety comes from past experience with the GB surgery. Much of the rest comes from the leap I'm taking in treatment. Right now, I could stop the shots at any time. Once I get the port in, it says: "I'm really doing this."

Interestingly, today when I called the home nursing folks to check on a few things, including making sure the Rocephin will actually be covered the woman checked my diagnosis code and immediately said: "Oh yes, you have Lyme disease. We deal with this all of the time." As Jeannine later noted, it's almost as if the disease is this underground illness--some doctors are treating it, but afraid to talk about it because it's so controversial.

That's the scoop as of now.

I'll try to blog about something non-medical soon. Over the weekend we did sandwich a birthday celebration and a park outing in between the craziness of Friday and Monday.

Blessings,

Emily

Photo: So I took this photo of the hospital on July 4th as we could see it from where we were seated. This is where I'll be Monday.