Surgery and IV Chemo this week

Emily is going to be having her IV Chemo on Wednesday this week, and then surgery to remove her implanted port on Thursday. Unfortunately they can't do them on the same day. We will let Emily use her port for this Chemo one last time before they take it out. To remind some of you, Emily had a port implanted under her skin in the middle of her chest. The port has a cath that goes directly into her Artium valve of her heart. This allowed her to get IV medication much easier, and much more directly into her system than any other method. So, why are we removing it when she still have 13 months of IV chemo to go? The answer is that while a port is a nice convienince they also have a blood clot risk, so the Oncologists have perform a risk assesment when deciding how long to keep a port in. When Emily was gettting IV medication multiple times a week, along with Blood tranfusions and other blood products, and having her labs drawn 2 and 3 times a week, it was an easy call to make. Her poor little veins would have been a scared up mess if we didn't use the port. As you will recall she also had a very large blood clot stopping all blood flow, about an inch from her heart. So knowing she clotted once, and they they do not need to be giving her as much IV treatment, Dr. Link really wants to take it out. The way he explained it to us was simple, "Chris and Tracy, imagine how guilty you would feel if there were a bad complication becasue we left the port in for convienince." So this Thursday they will be taking it out. It's a real surgical procedure where Emily will have to have a breathing tube inserted and will be put under for, deeper sleep than her LP's. They explained that it's very routine surgery, and the most complicated part will be "disecting her tissues away from the port line" which is hard to hear but makes sense. We will be very relieved once it's out, it's probably the biggest risk she has going on right now. Her recovery will be fairly quick, they anticipate sending her home the same day. she will have some pain for 3 to 4 days and they will control that with narcotics if she wants them. Emily doesn't like codine so I expect she's tough it out probably more than she has to, but we respect whatever decisons she makes along the lines of pain managment.

Emily, Tracy and Haley are up in Auburn today visiting Grannie Carol and Grandpa Steve. I got a text message from Tracy that they are up in the snow and sledding today. I bet they are having a blast and I will post some photos I am sure will be taken. Tomorrow Emily has a Girl Scout Gymnastic event to attend tomororw which she is also excited about. Her ability to stay active, and to be so brave around other kids is amazing. Remember EVERYWHERE Emily goes kids stare at her, and she's fully aware. For the most part I do not fault the kids who stare at her, I understand why they do, you don't see Cancer patients very much, much less ones who are leading an active, aparently very happy life, I just hope they learn and don't joke about her, but that's there problem if they do. The amazing part if Emily doesn't really care what anyone thinks, she just wants to get the most out of what she's doing.