First Round with the New Port Complete.

This morning I finished my first round of using my new port, the Ommaya reservoir. I went in each morning this week to receive chemo through the port. It's hard to describe the feeling when the physician sucks out some spinal fluid from my brain and then puts in some chemo, but it feels weird, and does give me a sensation that my head is spinning. It's not too bad though, and the whole thing goes rather quickly: clean, poke, suck, inject, flush, done.  When the doc flushes the line with saline, some people feel like champagne is rushing through their brain (they hear bubbles, and feel some version of tipsy too). I don't get the bubble sensation, which is fine by me, although I still get a bit tispy/nauseous. Luckily, the zofran anti-nausea works well. I take some before my appointment and I'm able to feel OK the rest of the day.  I didn't take any zofran the first day, and it was rough. I feel the best in the mornings, when the chemo has had longer to dissipate.  I also got "my bling," aka the staples, out today, which makes my head way less itchy. Without the constant reminder of the staples though, I walked out of the apartment without a hat today and gave some mail to the mailman.  I was wondering why I got a few weird looks on the street, but didn't put it together til I got back in the building. It's no longer as jarring without the staples, but its a bad haircut, a bump, and a half-moon scar--the whole combo is rather unusual.

Now I wait two weeks until I undergo another week of chemo through the Ommaya port. More infusions to treat the marrow is on Monday of next week.

Kevin and Hannah came up to Seattle last weekend. We escaped the city and went up near Anacortes, where Bree has a family home. It was a really relaxing and beautiful weekend spent with friends. It was nice to  fall asleep to the waves and wake up to a clean, crisp, fall air. We even saw 6 Orcas from the house (including a baby). I have never seen an Orca before so I was pumped. Our Puget Sound sub-population (feeds exclusively on salmon), rarely enters that part of Puget Sound.  Mad credit to Zach for spotting them and the photo credit goes to Paul.