Line In

The "central line" is a catheter that is inserted into a vein in the chest. For everything that happens from now on, anything that goes into or out of a vein will go through the central line, kind of like a USB port. My veins will finally get a little rest.

Inserting the line is a lightweight surgical procedure, done with sedation and local anesthesia, but a surgery nonetheless. So we have to compete for time in the OR with people who need immediate attention, and everything is scheduled at the last possible moment. In our case, that's after 8:00 PM the night before surgery. I figured I was low priority, and maybe the procedure would happen late morning/early afternoon.

So yesterday was our day off, and we visited Liz's brother Bill and family in Minneapolis. After dinner, we checked the automated telephone service to find that my scheduled report time was 5:45. AM. So we hustled back to Rochester (it's a little over an hour), leapt into bed, and roused ourselves shortly thereafter (no coffee for me!). After which we waited for anesthesiology to process me and everyone else. Prep for me began with a chest shaving and a nice beard trim (no extra charge), and I don't remember the rest, but now I am the proud owner of a double-lumen Hickman catheter (no idea how that differs from any other kind of catheter). It was all over by 9:00 AM.

My neck is a little stiff, and I have to figure out how to live with these tubes hanging on my chest, but generally I am still feeling fine. Tomorrow is "consolidation" -- a big dose of melphalan to shut down the remaining stem cells.