Any port in the storm

Since Tuesday, I've been having a generalized,dull ache in my right upper chest and Friday night, I discovered that I could not leave my right hand in any sort of resting position for long without pain. Moving or stretching it would give me about 30 seconds of relief. I think it has to do with my port, which is inserted on the upper right side of my chest. At least I hope so, because all the cancer tumors so far discovered have been on the left side. I really don't want it to be spreading to my right side. No fever, no swelling around the port site, just a dull ache that would sometimes radiate down my right arm as well. So, I called the Urgent Care nurse at Group Health around 10 pm and she directed me to come into the Capitol Hill Urgent Care Center, which I did with my very kind friend Anne.

Despite my own diagnosis that these symptoms had to do with my port, the doc on call did another set of xrays--frontal view and left(!)side--and another panel of blood work, neither of which showed anything. The nurse who drew the blood from my port was not very adept in the procedure, which you can see in the above illustration, and the draw was excruciatingly painful with my port site remaining tender for the half hour the needle stayed inserted. This had never happened before in my experience.

However, once the doc determined that no more blood was required and no injections were needed, the port was flushed with heparin to take care of any possible clots that might have formed in the general vicinity, and the needle removed. I returned Anne to her house, got home at 2am, and let the dogs out. However, it did not keep Max from getting me up for yet another trip to the back yard at 4:50 am.

Saturday, the ache was not quite as overwhelming, but it remains in the background. More and better distractions, please! Too bad I have run out of Doc Martin tv episodes to watch(here's a question for you: would you rather be treated by Dr. Gregory House or Dr. Martin Ellingham?). I still have no explanation for the cause of my continuing chest discomfort. It would help if I had an oncologist. Monday...

And for those of my readers who celebrate, Happy Easter! As many of you know, I am, at best, a rather irreverent Presbyterian. Found this description of the Christian celebration that is worth sharing:

Easter is when Jesus came out of his cave, saw his shadow and said there were only six more weeks until Armageddon!

Or as Sandra Boynton put in one of her Easter cards: "How do you say Easter is a good idea in French? -open the card- C'est une Bonne idee." With a large Boynton picture of a rabbit under it. Meaning it's a Bunny Day.

I love Sandra Boynton.