Update, downdate?

Had my balls removed on Thursday - actually, JP drains -and it was VERY interesting. If you have never seen these things, they are fascinating. These squeezable clear hollow rubber balls are attached to a tube that ends in a long (8 or so inch) foam? soakerhose (it has little holes) strip that is placed inside the body. The "balls" are compressed and then stoppered to make continuous gentle suction which draws fluid into the balls. As they fill up they can easily be emptied and the liquid measured. Ingenious! I didn't know until Thursday how much was inside me and when I saw it/them it kind of freaked me out. But I can't help being impressed with the technology. Dr. Silva removed them by cutting the stitches, asking me to take a deep breath and yanking. NOT FUN! It was not as painful as it sounds because much of that area is numb, but.

Dr. Silva also made sure we had all the stuff to do the packing on my abdominal wound, which was great because the home health people never contacted me. I won't go into details on the process for this, since I've already grossed you out enough today, but Chris is doing his best not to hurt me. It is really fortunate that I have a personal doctor to do this for me. Turns out that the home health people had a problem with the insurance, so the Oncology people had to find a home health group that would accept me. They told me about the problem on Friday at the Dr. Hatch appointment (more on that later) AND said that the new agency would be contacting me on Monday! Now, this dressing/packing is supposed to be changed and the wound cleaned daily, so if I had to depend on the home health people instead of my fantastic husband, I would have ended up with a SERIOUS infection. The kind that puts you in the hospital. Our health system is so broken.

Met with Dr. Hatch (radiation oncology) on Friday and she examined me and told me basically that I needed to manage my pain better - I had been trying to take myself off the pain meds. She convinced me that I was trying to be too brave, too soon. OK, OK, so now I'm back on a regular schedule for meds. We also planned a March 11th "intake appointment" to prepare to begin my radiation on March 16th. I will need 6 weeks of daily radiation treatments. I am told that each treatment takes about 15 minutes. A big consideration is that the location for this treatment is St. Josephs in downtown Houston, which is a 1 and 1/2 hour drive each way. My math puts that at 3.5 hours, daily!!! We had asked about the possibility of getting treated out of the "network" at a place a little closer, but I'd have to go with a new doctor and the drive wouldn't be that much shorter. At least that is what we think, we'll have to do a test drive to the alternate site. Anyway, after I explained my work situation (need money, used up more than my allowed FMLA leave) to Dr. Hatch she arranged early morning treatments - 7:30(someone is coming in early for me!). This means, since I have 1st period off each day and don't even see students until 9:15, that I won't miss much work. So driving to St Jo's might be doable.