Six Letter Word [Kaylor]

October 2016 (Part 4)

Friday morning found us once again in the waiting area at the Cancer Institute. I was due for another round of blood tests, to see where my hormone levels were in preparation for the treatment on Monday. If they still weren't high enough, I would have to give myself two shots of a medicine that mimics the thyroid stimulating hormone to make my body as ready as possible to absorb the radioactive iodine. I wasn't exactly excited about the possibility, and I know Karlie was dreading it, because she knew if it came to that, she would actually be the one giving me the shots. I wasn't too worried though, I was definitely noticing more symptoms of being hypothyroid after three weeks, so I was fairly confident my levels were up. I was also going to meet with a nuclear medicine doctor who would give me instructions on what to do the day of treatment, and what I had to do at home to make sure Karlie was safe. Dr. Miller was going to be part of the appointment as well, as my oncologist. She was the one who prescribed the dose of radioactive iodine, so she wanted to be part of the process.

Karlie and I laughed when the nurse handed me a pregnancy test to take. I mean, it makes sense, that they would just blanket test anyone female and not post-menopausal, but as a lesbian whose last failed attempt to be with a guy was seven years ago, and didn't involve anything that could have led to pregnancy, I found it pretty funny. I mean, over the last decade, I've probably been rumored to be pregnant at least once a year, despite the fact that anyone who knew me at all could have told you that wasn't possible. For the record, once again, I wasn't pregnant. I had to slip off my sweater once again for the blood draw, there's no easy way to dress for both fall in New York and access to bare arms, but at least this time the room wasn't freezing. I still hated needles. Two months in, hundreds of needle sticks to go, and I wasn't getting used to it.

The nurse saw me flinch as I put my arm out for the blood draw and asked if I'd considered getting a port. I had, but I thought you only got those for chemo, and I didn't really know much about it. The nurse explained that I could get one at any time to make it easier to have blood drawn, start IVs and get injections. It would sit just under the skin of my chest and make vein access virtually painless. Way less uncomfortable for me, and it would leave my hands free while I was hooked up to an IV. It definitely sounded promising, but I'd had coffee that morning, so they would've had to do it with just local anesthesia, no sedation or anything, and if I couldn't handle a single needle for a blood draw, there was no way I was going to be able to have them do a minor surgical procedure while I was fully conscious. The nurse suggested that I could get it implanted on Monday before the radioactive iodine. It's a short surgery, they could do it in the morning, let me go home for lunch and then admit me for the treatment in the afternoon, making use of my new port right away for the IV during treatment, which sounded like a good plan. I would be able to use it for blood tests, imaging, everything, without the nurses having to find veins all the time. Dr. Miller came in just as he was finishing up the blood draw, and she agreed that it might be time to get a port, just to make my life easier, if that was what I wanted. She helped me set up the appointment with the interventional radiologist, yet another specialist in the long list of new doctors I saw for each new procedure.

The nuclear medicine specialist came in next to talk to me about just what to expect from the treatment. He agreed that getting a port put in in the morning would be no problem for the treatment in the afternoon and might even actually help, at least when it came to making me more comfortable. I got a whole list of dos and don'ts for the day of the treatment, and the days after. That first day, I couldn't bring anything electronic with me to the hospital, but I could bring anything else that I wanted to entertain myself with during the three hour isolation phase. I would go into the isolation room and find that everything was covered in plastic or disposable. Whatever I wore those first three hours would be trashed, so I could either put on old clothes of my own that I didn't have any problem with throwing out, or I could wear a hospital gown. Even the floor would be covered in disposable pads so I wouldn't touch it with my bare feet. I would take the radioactive iodine as three pills, and they probably wouldn't make me feel any different, right away, but they would be doing most of their work right then. Before I could leave I would have to take a shower and drink a bunch of water to flush some of it out of my system. As long as my radiation level went down like they thought, after those three hours it would be safe for Mike to drive me home.