PICC and roll

Went through a handful of emotions today @ the Docs. Nothing horrible was gonna happen, I knew that. And nothing horrible was going to be planned either. Knew that as well. But this wasn't one of the lighter trips to the Dr. for me.

At first, since my veins were no longer handling the IV infusion of Oxaliplatin well, it was decided that I would be needing to schedule an outpatient procedure to have a port embedded in my chest. That was within the first 2, maybe 3, minutes of the visit. After a spell of waiting in one of the examining rooms, while presumably schedules were being checked to see when I could have the procedure, Dr. Wall, my Onc (Oncologist), came in to check me out.

He looked over my right arm, still swollen from wrist to bicep. He seemed very unsatisfied at this latest turn. As he looked me over, I commented that I was disappointed I was 3 treatments away from completing chemo and now, I would need to have the port.

He looked up - and locked in - we were both thinking exactly the same thing. Nice. He said in lieu of the port, we could PICC. The picc would be inserted on an outpatient basis and would be removed after the four hours of chemo. But... and there's usually a "but", he mentioned something about "administrative issues" (his office is in a wing of the hospital where I was operated on and where I would have the picc implanted for each of the next 3 treatments) concerning outpatient procedures and something else... when it comes to insurance matters, I'm lost - or become lost very quickly. He wanted to check on something.

OK now, I already know about and whole heartily trust his expertise. But you're telling me he can get an answer to an administrative/procedural/red-tapey like question in under 5 minutes?? Well that's a big 10-4. Funny too, I think the answer he received surprised him a bit as well. He came back in the examining room and said with a sly grin that they changed the rule just for me.

I'll have to skip at least a week before the next treatment. Allow the swelling to go down and a bit more time for the platinum/toxins to purge. I'll go back for another check up after the New Year - hopefully my arm will be mucho better by then - and we will schedule treatment No. 8, picc and all.