PORTACATH

It sounds like the name of one of my favorite recording artists, but it's a plastic "port" and a tube that was put in a little below the collar bone that goes up to my jugular vein and then down into my heart. It will allow the doctors to inject medicine (chemotherapy) as directly as possible to my blood stream and avoid having to have tons of injections by needle. Before the procedure I had to fast and was given an IV, I experienced a vasovagel, I fainted. I nodded out in the chair, became dizzy, disoriented and sweaty. Kim was there with me. They stabilized me with fluids and we were ready to start the portacath insertion. Zach, the doctor asked if I wanted to hear music, so we listened to his friend's Israeli Blue Grass group Holler! Everything went fine except Zach accidently pricked his finger with one of the suture needles. This meant I had to have some blood drawn to have checked for disease, I fainted again. It was a sleaty, cold night in New York. Kim hailed us a cab back downtown to my apartment where she made me an avocado-coconut shake (from Samantha's recipe) using my new Waring commercial blender. We watched American Idol.