Met with the surgeon this morning, I have been told that he is literally the world's top liver surgeon! Only the best for me! He was really nice and he told me that he wanted to biopsy a lymph node that appeared large on my CAT scan and he would like to perform surgery after 2-3 rounds of chemo if the lymph node tests negative in the biopsy. Surgery is not totally out if this node is malign, but I would have to wait a little longer and see if the cancer in the lymph node can be completely eliminated by the chemo.

At 12:00 I went in to have my central line put in. They like to put them in your upper arm on the inside. I was not too thrilled about this b/c it is permanent until you are completely done with chemo for a while and I would have this plastic tube hanging outside my body. I also found out that I would have to flush it EVERY day with a blood thinner and that I would have to change the dressing twice a week. The line runs up your arm and into your aorta, so the constant care is very important to prevent a serious infection. We also have to take 3 hours worth of classes and do a demonstration to be certified to change the dressings and flush it on our own at home, otherwise we would have to go to the hospital daily.

2 hours later, 2 nurses later, 7 shots of Lidacane and 2 ultra sound machines later I told the nurses that I was done and they had to stop digging in my arm to thread the line. Turns out they do not sedate you at all for this procedure and they just jam needles in your arm to find a vein while using the ultra sound machine to guide them all the way through to your aorta! After 2 hours of this torture I had a meltdown and made them stop. I supposedly have small veins and they were spasming which made it impossible for them to run the line through the vein without torturing me with the most horrendous pain imaginable! I scheduled myself for a new line to be put in just below my clavicle bone by my right shoulder. This was scheduled first thing Monday morning.