That Didn't Take Long

Last Wednesday I went into the hospital because my central venous line had stopped working. They concluded it had moved out of position and replaced it. Now today we discovered that my new central venous line has also stopped working! We don't know why yet, but I'd say it's a reasonable bet that it has shifted out of position again. There must be something fluky about my anatomy on my left side that just doesn't agree with central venous lines.

So what to do? Replace it again? Nah. They seem satisfied that they can do what they need to do using conventional IV access and my existing chemo port, though I do have to wonder why, if the port is adequate, we didn't just pull out the central venous line altogether last Wednesday and have done with it. They (meaning the bone marrow transplant unit) like the central venous line because you can access it without poking a hole in my skin. With conventional IV access or chemo port access, a needle must be pushed through my skin - the BMT unit regard this as an inferior approach from an infection suppression point of view. But I guess as a last resort, it'll do.

Besides, I don't mind. I'm all bruised up from having the new central venous line installed, but it makes me look tough.

My blood test results today were extremely positive. My white cell, red cell and platelet counts were really quite good, and despite all the vomiting my overall blood chemistry is still normal. Moreover, they hit me up with IV Aloxi and dexamethasone today because I started to get really sick right there in the BMT unit, and right now I feel right as rain. No nausea, no particular pain from my CVL installation, and immense relief that my stem cells seem to be finding their ways to my bone marrow and getting with the program.

I'll take that over a kick in the butt with a copper-toed boot any day.