I have lots of holes in me right now, even more than a normal girl. One of them is for a picc line (peripherally inserted central catheter). The catheter goes from a vein in my arm, up around my shoulder, right down to the superior vena cava where the drugs can be delivered very close to my heart. If I remember correctly, the reason they put these in is because the drugs are so caustic to the veins. If they are delivered in a peripheral vein there might be too much dwell time in one spot, causing damage to the vein. If they are delivered to the heart, the heart will pump them through quickly and make them more diffuse throughout the vascular system.
Did I just make all that up?
So I got this line put in my first day in the hospital, August 21st 2017, and a few hours later I started noticing I was getting slight palpitations now and then. The next day I had an echocardiogram, and the tech pointed out the tip of the catheter flapping around along with my heart valves. Apparently the line was in a little too far (it was inside my atrium) so it had to be backed out a couple centimeters.
Since I'm on the subject of holes, why don't I tell you about my lumbar puncture, a.k.a. spinal tap?
Since my first and really only symptom was a headache, the doctors wanted to be sure the leukemia wasn't in my central nervous system already. It's rare for this type of cancer, but it happens. And they figured if it had spread, that would surely explain the headaches.
So yesterday I curled up in the fetal position on my side while the doctor stuck a tube into my spinal column between I think L3 and L4. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, and my nerves got jangled for sure, but all in all I'd give it a 3 on a scale of 1 to terrible. They sucked out 10ml I think of cerebrospinal fluid for testing, and injected the same amount back in of cytarabine. This was done as a prophylactic spinal chemo.
Preliminary results showed no blasts in my csf, so yay for me!
Did I just make all that up?
So I got this line put in my first day in the hospital, August 21st 2017, and a few hours later I started noticing I was getting slight palpitations now and then. The next day I had an echocardiogram, and the tech pointed out the tip of the catheter flapping around along with my heart valves. Apparently the line was in a little too far (it was inside my atrium) so it had to be backed out a couple centimeters.
Since I'm on the subject of holes, why don't I tell you about my lumbar puncture, a.k.a. spinal tap?
Since my first and really only symptom was a headache, the doctors wanted to be sure the leukemia wasn't in my central nervous system already. It's rare for this type of cancer, but it happens. And they figured if it had spread, that would surely explain the headaches.
So yesterday I curled up in the fetal position on my side while the doctor stuck a tube into my spinal column between I think L3 and L4. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, and my nerves got jangled for sure, but all in all I'd give it a 3 on a scale of 1 to terrible. They sucked out 10ml I think of cerebrospinal fluid for testing, and injected the same amount back in of cytarabine. This was done as a prophylactic spinal chemo.
Preliminary results showed no blasts in my csf, so yay for me!
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