The Liver

It’s the best time to update this blog as I am resting very comfortably in the couch after a long day spent in Overlake Hospital.

I woke up at 4 AM so I can have breakfast before it gets restricted for the procedure; I got to the hospital around 6:40 and got admitted to the West first floor. I got greeted by kind nurses, like any other department in the Overlake Hospital I’ve been. I can’t say good things enough about the Overlake staff, they are just angels.

Around 10 AM they took me to a room with a scanning machine, like the one I have posted a photo from, probably the first or second blog of these series. Dr. Jerome, the same doctor that put the port in my chest explained the process. He was going to CT scan the abdomen, find the spots in the liver, and then insert long needles into my liver to leave a small piece of metal (AKA marker) in each spot so Dr. Reece can focus the radiation on them. One of my questions was what would happen to the markers after the radiation is over and the answer was they will stay there for the rest of my life. Another question was would they make sound at the airport securities, and the answer was No, thanks for that 🙂

I did not have a full anesthesia, so I was kind of watching the whole process which took almost two hours and they took me back to my room around 1 PM to be supervised for three hours, in case of potential bleeding. Everything went great and I was discharged around 4 PM. My wife picked me up and I am comfortably resting since then.

Next week, I will know my schedule for radiation. My chemotherapy schedule was set for next Tuesday, which would land my infusion pump’s take down on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, an official closed day for Infusion Department. So Dr. Bansal said if my white cell count was high enough on Monday, I’ll get my treatment with the pump take down on Wednesday, so I will have a pump free Thanksgiving. But if the white cell count was low, I have to wait till Wednesday for the chemo, and have to enjoy my Thanksgiving dinner with the pump injecting the damn poison in my body. Either way, I am very grateful for still kicking and clicking 😀

What a year has 2014 been for me.

Best wishes for all of you for a very Happy Thanksgiving.

~ by Al Garman on November 21, 2014.