Today has been another hard day for Mom. Only one side of her port was accessed at Cancer Care yesterday and they had so many meds to give her that they wanted to access the second port site right next to it. We asked for the nurse with the most experience at placing port needles. The nurse that came in was very confident that she could get it done.

I stay with Mom as Dad steps out when any procedure having to do with needles comes up. This way the nurses don't have to catch him on the way down. The nurse gave Mom several local anesthetic shots to numb the site. She tried about 6-7 times with no luck. By the time she finished she was rattled, Mom was a wreck and I was beside myself.

If you haven't seen a port or how they are accessed I am not sure I could do it justice in describing it. I can tell you that after Troy and Maria's house flood I was helping Carmen hang some wainscoting in the dining room with a nail gun using finishing nails. That is what the needles look like to me, but with a sharper end. They have a small bend at the tip and they puncture the skin first but then proceed to rotate them slightly. With Mom they seem to have to use a lot of pressure to insert it deeper. Now, normally this would not be the case. (when the port site that receives the needles are in straight) the needles slide right in. We have been told time and time again that a port site is a huge blessing as you don't have to keep being poked. (Unless it is in at an angle.) I don't know who's hand was hurting worse, mine or Mom's. We were squeezing each other so hard. What we know for sure is that it is not in as it should be. There should not be this trauma to her every time they try to access it. Ok, so then they called the nurse that got it in for her last week when it had to be changed. She came in confident she could access it as well, but it took another 7 tries. It is so hard to watch her go through this and it was so painful even with the lydoacine injection. After it was in they gave her morphine to essentially knock her out as her nerves were a jangled mess. I couldn't get them to give me any however. I could have used a sedative. :)

So after that, we called the Dr. and just let them know that she could not go through this another time. Something has to be done to fix it. She may have to undergo another surgical procedure to fix it, but in the big scheme of things it will have to be done. She just can't have this happen every time. The surgical team will be coming in and discussing this with Mom and Dad most likely tomorrow.

She will have to come back here around the 20th of this month and have another PET scan. This scan will tell them a few things.

1) If the tumor is shrinking from the chemo.
2) How to adjust the chemo dosage for her third round.

We are asking them to replace her port placement just before starting her 3rd round.

Mom took the news that she would be staying a while longer with a few tears. There are just not enough good days at home for her before having to come back for the next treatment, especially when she feels crummy. We all want to be at our own homes when we are sick. Please pray that:

1) Her white blood cell count will come back up soon so her mouth, throat, GI tract and body will start to heal quickly.
2) That she can eat and drink as this will determine how soon she can return home.
3) That the port issue will be resolved once and for all.
4) That the tumor will have shrunk enough to have the surgery and be removed, or for God's total healing and that it will be gone completely.

I know that the Lord is hearing our cries and cares so much about every bit of pain Mom is feeling. Thank you for caring as well.

Maria will be coming up tomorrow to stay with Mom and Dad. Let's all pray that Saturday is a "go home" day.

Love you much,

Kimberly and family