bling bling

Yo! I got me some new bling today! My old school power port done been upgraded with a (butter)fly needle!

Seriously, I went in this morning for an iron infusion as my last bloodwork came back saying I am anemic. However, the iron drip did not go well. Since this was my first time, the technicians hooked me up with a steroid to counteract any negative reaction I might have. Then I got a test drip of the iron infusion that I would either tolerate or react to very quickly.

Brenda, my technician, was chatting with me while monitoring how the test drip went and she spotted me going south right away. I felt funny for a few seconds and then went wacko. My head felt like it was on fire and pulsing with my heartbeat. My hearing started to fade away, my hands went cold, and my heart raced. I thought I was in serious trouble. Together, Brenda and the on-call doctor got me onto a Benedryl drip to calm me down though that intense dose gave me the shakes for what felt like half an hour... and knocked me out cold for an hour plus.

When I woke up, I was okay though still not really happy about the experience. I know it won't happen again, but that doesn't make tomorrow any easier. I start my chemo in the morning.

To that end I took home the butterfly needle in my port. Together with my ostomy pouch, I am stylin'. :\

Because the j-pouch resection is not yet ready for the ileostomy reversal, we're going to make the most of the next few weeks to get some chemo through me. It should go to town on the little lesions on my liver (maybe my lung?) but it may slow down the surgery healing already going on. We'll find out in about a month when I go back in to see Dr. Grasso again and see if the resection site is ready. If so, we'll stop the chemo for a short time and do the reversal. Then we'll finish the chemo. There will be some scans in there from time to time to see how the chemo is working.

Meanwhile, I am still going to try and see how the chemo affects me. If I take two rounds (three weeks) and am doing good, I'd like to try getting back to work in February. Meanwhile, I'll just pray for the treatments to go easy on me and do what they're supposed to do.