June 11, 2010

Big day. Internal radiation, also known as a Fletcher Implant, was a long four hour prep for a 9 minute procedure. Here's how the day went.
We arrived to the hospital at 5:30am and checked in. The waiting room was busy, we chose to sit in the hall because someone had bathed himself in cologne and I thought i might vomit.
We have this check in thing down to a science. First smiles to the nurses get you everywhere. Second, have copies of all forms you may need to fill out, most hospitals have the same forms, just make several copies and all you have to do is change the dates, and last having a partner like I have, my sweet Chris, will get you through anything.
Nurse calls us back and takes my temp, pressure and weight. We get in a room around 6:07am. Nurse says "get into the gown, fresh sample and open the door when you are ready." My pleasure. I also inform the nurse I have a port and she lets me know she needs to get a special nurse for that. Yeah, special nurse time. The rooms are older than the spanking new IMC hospital. It is clean, that's something. We sit there for a while, then the nurse trained for ports comes in to get my IV in. When you are the owner of a port the nurses are supposed to wear a surgical mask, gloves and use a lot of alcohol to clean the port area. Nurse did all of this and was getting ready to insert the IV, out of the corner of my eye i noticed the top of the IV was not yellow, like in the pamphlets. This is not right. The nurse wiggled the needle around and after a few seconds decides to go get an oncology nurse that works with "these ports" all the time. Okay. Meanwhile, i have this IV lead protruding from my port. I did not look at it because i would surely faint. Oncology nurse came in and noticed it was not the right IV lead and got the yellow one. Problem fixed. I did get poked twice by an IV but i really didn't feel it. Love my new port!!!
The nurse asked if i had any questions about the procedure and that i needed to sign a consent form. "I do have a problem, i would like to speak with the doctor." she asked me why and i said i have never met the man and i would like to know who is going to be doing this procedure. She said i will met him just before going into surgery.
7:30 am and i am wheeled to surgery. Come to find out my doctor was doing the procedure the whole time, the hospital messed up the names. Thank goodness, i was very relieved to find this out. I spoke with my doc with last minute questions. I then met the pain doc. He told me he was going to put me out. In the surgical room i transfer to a crazy bed that has a hole near my butt. Weird table but i figured it was so the doctor would have better access to my lady bits. Pain doc must have given me the drugs because i got real heavy and closed my eyes.
I woke up in recovery, it was 9am. First thoughts on waking up, don't be grossed out, felt like i had bad diarrhea because my butt hurt and it felt like i had a pee catheter. Oh i did have a catheter, wasn't expecting that. Now what is causing that butt pain? "Nurse, did i crap myself in the surgery?" i asked. She said i'm not sure but im sure I'll be just fine and would i like something for pain. A yeah i would!! I could hear the other recoverers around me, a lady had just had a D&C, ouch. There was an old man next to me snoring loudly. Seriously, with an oxygen mask on snoring, weird. The nurse woke him up finally. Still don't know why i have butt pain but the pain drugs are helping a little so i try to forget about it.
9:20am get wheeled down to radiology. Chris! i see Chris finally for a few seconds and then he disappears. I got wheeled into a room with a CT scan machine. "We are going to transfer you to the scan machine Sara and you just relax." My vagina feels full of "stuff" but i can't figure out what stuff is in there. I don't ask for fear of freaking out. I laid still on the table while they took several scans of my body. I dont know how much time passes but it seems like forever. The doctor comes in and says "Im going to try to adjust your ovoids and there is some gauze in your rectum im going to take out." AHH! Gauze shoved in my butt, what a great place to put that. Come to find out the gauze was put in my rectum for placement so they didn't damage my rectum. (the gauze in the butt was the second worst part of the procedure) What are ovoids? They are the devices they put in me in surgery. The ovoids and a tandem will plug into the radiation table and that is how they get the direct radiation into the uterus and vagina. I have no idea what these things look like but she adjusts them and it is a little uncomfortable but manageable. More scans. After all the scanning, the doctor tells me they need to go map the information and make a plan and that should take about an hour. They transfer me back to my gurney and i get wheeled to the hall where my prince awaits.
Chris is thoroughly bored. He wasn't sure how long things were going to take so he was just hanging out in the waiting room working on a puzzle. I felt bad for him having to wait. And now more waiting.
We waited in the hallway for a long time. Chris and I talked about what happened and what is going to happen. We talked about food and what the girls are doing. Chris looked so tired, i wanted him to lay down or something but he kept telling me he was just fine.
11:20am. The doctors are finished making all the calculations and planning and are ready to treat me. They wheel me down the hallway to the radiation room. It is a big room, divided with a curtain. They don't have to transfer me, my bed rolls right up to the radiation machine that is at the end of the bed. The doctor and nurse come in and get me hooked up the the machine. There is some tugging in my vagina as they hook up the leads. It isn't painful but not comfortable. I am hooked up, the nurse waves a wand over me to check me for radioactivity, just to be safe, then they all leave the room. The procedure will only take 9 minutes. All this work for 9 minutes. Crazy. While i lay there i hear some clicking and humming. Inside i can feel warmth and vibration from the clicking but it's nothing real noticeable.
I'm finished. They come in to take out the ovoids and tandem. "Okay Sara this is going to be uncomfortable, we have to take out the packing and the devices, take some deep breaths." WTH? And it begins. If you have ever heard of anal beads or something to that effect, thats what i would relate it to, but it was a dry pulling. What were they pulling out. Then i saw it was gauze. They had packed a crap load of gauze in there to keep the ovoids in place. It really was uncomfortable. It seriously took about 45 seconds to pull everything out. This was the worst part of the whole procedure. After that they had me relax and catch my breath and get ready to stand up. Just like that, laying in bed for how ever many hours just stand up. It took a little while but i got up and walked to the dressing area with Chris. I told Chris he will never believe was was jammed up in my lady area. He was very surprised when i showed him the picture.
I will be doing this procedure four more times depending on how my tumors respond to the treatment. On saturday and sunday i have spotting and a little cramping. i am also groggy and have diarrhea. Not sure if this is from the pain medication or because i missed my chemo meds. Probably a little of both.
Thanks to Rita and Sean for the yummy sloppy joes on friday!