I'm Radioactive

After posting this entry I read Mandy Poll's blog. Her husband Travis is suffering from esophageal cancer and they had a very difficult day yesterday. Before reading about my day please take a minute and pray for the Polls. Mandy's blog I finally received phase 2 of SIRT yesterday. Terry and I made the early trip down there and I was admitted, tested, hooked up to IV’s and ready to go by shortly after 8:00 am. Unfortunately they had an emergency case that they took before me so it was about 10:30 by the time I went to the procedure room. That prolonged our day by a couple of hours. The mechanics of the procedure were almost identical to the last one except that they used the catheter through my femoral artery to insert the spheres. When the spheres actually hit my liver there was severe pain in my upper abdomen and lower chest. I thought I was having a heart attack. When I mentioned it to them they said it was normal and quickly shot me up with a pain killer. I wish I had been told to expect it. This time the pressure to my groin was applied by a woman who probably didn’t want to be there. I don’t blame her. She applied only fifteen minutes of pressure and when she stopped I started bleeding again. After five or ten minutes more it was under control but they did watch it more closely than the last time. Then there was 45 minutes to an hour of nuclear pictures and back to the holding area. And I didn’t pee through the whole thing. At least not that I know of. I had insisted on taking the pre-meds dry and made a point to hit the bathroom right before going in. It worked. The six hours of laying on my back were agonizing; worse than the last time. I did OK until about the last hour and a half but I was experiencing pain and nausea. They began to gradually raise the head of the bed to give me some relief. When it was over I walked the eight steps to the bathroom and got dressed. Terry and I began the long walk through winding corridors to leave but after a short distance I felt nauseous and light headed so I had to stop. Terry returned to the holding area to get a wheel chair while I waited. I felt that I had to sit down so I started wondering the halls looking for someplace to sit. I ran into a hospital worker who could tell I was in trouble. He helped me to a nurses station to sit. By then Terry was back with the wheel chair but couldn’t find me. The hospital work tracked Terry down and brought her to me but by then the radiology nurse was looking for us. The hospital worker found her, led her to us, and after this little Keystone Cop adventure we were on our way. When we got home I went to bed and slept for about fourteen hours, none of it on my back. The spheres were injected into only the right side of my liver. We have been given two different reasons for this, both of which make sense. First, there is a possibility the liver will be damaged. If that were to happen, I could live with only the left side functioning. In that case they would not do the left side. The second reason, which was given to us by a different doctor, is that doing both sides at once would require a higher dose of radiation at one time. It would be much more toxic to the body. I will go back in about 30 days after a CT scan in about two weeks, to have the left side done. There are some post procedure restrictions. For three days I cant’ be close to anyone for more than 30 minutes. I had to send Oscar to stay with his cousin Cheryl because he’s always on my lap or sleeping with me. After using the toilet I have to flush twice. I have to postpone getting pregnant. I’m anxious to get it done and find out if it helps. Carry on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------