Port Removal

I can no longer be plugged in!! Yay! One more thing checked off the cancer list!

Having the port taken out was a lot easier than having it put in. Actually, I received my radiation and had the port taken out by 9:00am this morning!! The port removal itself took less than 15 minutes including time to remove some of the blood so I could take a picture...


I'm sure nobody is shocked that I had to have a picture. Isn't it cute? This is the little bugger that was between my ribs and my skin on my chest for the last 5 months. It is weird not to touch my collar bone and feel the tube. I didn't realize how often I felt for it until it was gone. Turns out I do that a lot when I'm sitting at my desk mulling something over.

I also took a picture of my radiation machine. Check it out...

The table moves back and up so that my face is right under the machine which rotates around me. The blue things are where I rest my upper arms and I grab the black poles behind my head to make sure I don't move. When the lights are turned off there are all sorts of red laser beams shooting all over the room that they use to line me up. The face of the machine has metal teeth that move to focus the radiation. Sometimes it is open in a narrow line and others times it makes a trapezoid shape. I wonder if that shape is what I will see on my skin when I start to notice irritation. So far radiation hasn't had any impact other than the inconvenience of having to be at the hospital every morning. I have all sorts of different lotions around the house and in my purse to avoid as much impact to my skin as I can. I have everything anyone has recommended or I've read about... I am very moisturized!!

I've decided that radiation has a lot of similarities to being in jail, not that I can really compare. But, when you are sitting in the waiting room everyone talks about what they're in for and all the injustices they've endured. Luckily I don't spend much time there.

Only 26 more rounds of radiation to go!