Maybe it's just me, but when I hear medical terms like, 'Port-a-Cath', in my head I picture some cool metallic medical instrument. I'm not sure why I continue to think this way about medical items because every time I am proven wrong. For example, when Donny broke his leg and needed screws and plates put in, I thought those were just descriptions of the medical pieces they would really use. Oh no...they literally took screws and a metal plate and drilled them into his leg to hold it together. Anyway, the doctor who was performing the surgery came in and explained the whole procedure to us. He then brought in a sample port so we could see it. And it is definitely not that metallic instrument I had in mind. In fact, the port was plastic and purple!!! No, it's not purple because of Northwestern (purple is their school color), it happened to be a coincidence. And the port Donny received was a double port. Meaning it has two little round nodules instead of one. The purpose of having two nodules is because the chemo will be administered through one side and other medications will be administered through the other. I'm not fully sure why it needs to be done this way, but the doctor said something about not wanting to mix the medications and chemo. Here are some pictures of what the port looks like:
Donny's procedure took a little longer than an hour and a half. In the mean time, Mrs. Gelsomino and I walked around, got some lunch and read our books. We're getting to know our way around the building quite well. When Donny went into recovery, we were able to see him in the recovery room. He was much more aware than he was when he had the biopsy done. I didn't know this until right before Donny got the procedure done, but he didn't need to be put under for this procedure. Instead, they put him in what is called a "twilight" stage. They give Donny some pain killers, numbing medicines and anti-anxiety medications so he was slightly aware of what was going on. Donny said he felt like he watched the whole procedure, but the nurse said he was sleeping for about 1/2 of it.
The doctor who did the procedure was so friendly and thorough. Since Donny still had stitches in his neck from the biopsy, we asked the doctor to take those out. The nurse said that typically, the doctors won't touch what they didn't do, but this doctor took one look and agreed to take them out if the cut was healed fully. Of course, because Donny has been so active, the doctor was only able to take out half the stitches because the other half isn't healed. Oh, and that's the best part about this procedure today...no stitches! They used suture glue. Once again, suture glue sounds really cool and technical, but all it is, is super glue for your skin. Here are some pictures of Donny's new wounds...
Fertility
While we were waiting with Donny in the recovery room, I got a phone call from the fertility clinic to set up an appointment and discuss the process with them. You may be wondering why I continue to mention the fertility clinic. For those of you who don't know how chemo works, I'll explain a little bit (because I had no clue about this.) Chemo basically kills any reproducing cells in your body because that's what cancer is, a rapidly reproducing cell. The problem is that chemo doesn't discriminate between good reproducing cells and bad ones. So that is why people loose their hair, get a grayish tint to their skin, experience stomach pain, etc. Your hair, skin and stomach lining all reproduce on a daily basis. Sperm and apparently the cells that produce sperm are also reproducing cells. This means that the chemo can and most likely does, prevent sperm production and can potentially cause permanent loss of production, otherwise known as infertility. Typically, in the majority of men, sperm production will come back between 6 months to a year. However, in a smaller percentage of cases, it can take 5 to 10 years. Considering that we are 26 years old, newly married and have always wanted a family, even a .01% chance of becoming infertile is a .01% chance more than we are willing to take. So, we have an appointment tomorrow, Thursday, at 10am to get blood tests and make a deposit. To read more about the fertility process, you can read more on Northwestern's Oncofertility website: http://oncofertility.northwestern.edu/
I forgot to mention, in 2006, Dr. Theresa Woodruff at Northwestern coined the term "oncofertility". Oncofertility basically combines cancer research and reproductive research to expand options of reproduction for cancer survivors. All cancer patients being treated at Northwestern are contacted by a 'fertility navigator' who walks them through their options for reproduction in the future. It is such a comfort to both Donny and I to know that our doctors are conscious about preserving sperm so we are able to have kids some day. Most likely we will not need to use the specimens we freeze, but it's better safe than sorry! I was talking to Mr. Gelsomino (who likes to refer to our unborn child as "little Donny") about these appointments and he said to me, "Well, you'll just have to freeze little Donny for a while." I was cracking up! At least everything is trying to keep a positive attitude about all this craziness!
Overall, it was another long day at the hospital and Donny is definitely sore tonight. But God forbid he missed football, so bless his heart, since he wasn't allowed to drive, he had his mom drive him to football practice and his dad drive him back home. Donny is one tough guy and is determined to go to football practice every day, regardless of how tired he is. His strength definitely keeps me going.
Tomorrow's schedule is:
10am appointment with the fertility doctor - to discuss the process and ???
11am appointment with the fertility lab - to get blood drawn to test for HIV and other diseases like Hep B, etc.
1pm appointment with Dr. P. - hopefully to get a treatment plan and a final diagnosis
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