A Little Bit Of Port (shucks, I don't mean the wine)

Hi Everyone!

First off, does everyone (at least in the Baltimore area) see how beautiful it is out today? Oh my gosh! Granted its still warm for my taste, its lovely to view out the window ;) Come on September! Nice weather will bring the return of lovely morning Stoneleigh walks with my dad. <3

OK, so what has happened since I last wrote? Well, a big piece of news is that I picked up my first wig!  Before the beautiful and amazing Jasmine and her sister embarked on the journey of donating their hair and having a wig created for me, I had already started one in the works. I am very excited that I will have two so I will not be stuck in a situation where I have nothing to put on my head! I have to give a HUGE shout out to my amazing in laws Joe and Mary Alger for purchasing this very generous gift for me. Wigs like this are not cheap, but having this will really help my self esteem and just my sense of normalcy through all of this. I am so grateful <3 My wig looks exactly like my hair. I mean, its insane. Sherri Romm at Versacchi is a wizard, a genius, an absolute artist. Seriously... If anyone reading this is in a similar situation of needing hair replacement, please check out this salon. Not only is she talented, but she is just unbelievably sweet and compassionate too.

So that was Wednesday, on to Thursday, and Thursday was PORT DAY don don don

So I went in for surgery to have a port placed. I'm going to cheat and just copy some wikipedia information on what a port is for anyone who might not know:

In medicine, a port (or portacath) is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein. Under the skin, the port has a septum through which drugs can be injected and blood samples can be drawn many times, usually with less discomfort for the patient than a more typical "needle stick".

The port is usually inserted in the upper chest, just below the clavicle or collar bone, leaving the patient's hands free.

I googled a picture of what the thing that they inserted in me looks like: 

So surgery wasn't so bad. They put me under, so I don't really remember too much. Recovery wasn't that bad, and I had great nurses as usual. It was pretty rough the rest of the night though with nausea, because I am so sensitive to the anesthesia and I had taken vicodin on a pretty much empty stomach. Silly me. Sleep was also hard to come by because I was left with some decent pain from the procedure. I'm feeling a lot better today, though there is definitely some residual nausea. I just finally took one of the pills that they prescribed for nausea that I've been avoiding because I did not want to deal with the side effects listed. The last thing you want is medicine that makes you drowsy when you've already been drowsy for an entire day post anesthesia. Anyway, I took it a few minutes ago, so we'll see how it goes. 

Today I got a really cute gift from the gang at my dentist's office. Thank you so much everyone @ The Smile Design Center for my super adorable Build-a-bear kitty, who happens to look JUST LIKE one of my favorite ambassador cats from the cat shows, who happens to be named Hope, so I have named the kitty you guys gave me Hope as well :) She'll definitely be coming with me to Chemo in her super comfy robe and slippers! Here is a photo of me w/ the stuffed kitty (and my kitty ice pack), and a photo of the real Hope ;)

Anyway, I shall sign off from this blog post with a morning time crazy haired family portrait (minus Biko cause she was off sleeping somewhere still) I hope everyone is having a great day, and LOVE TO ALL!! <3 <3

XOXO,

LINDS