If at First You Don't Succeed

Today was the first day that we were able to use Tim's port for the chemotherapy. This was supposed to make everything so much easier. Of course, it didn't. The nurse hooked up the chemotherapy and about fifteen minutes later Tim complained that the port hurt. It turns out that the nurse didn't have the needle completely inserted into the port and the chemotherapy was not going into the vein but under his skin. Fortunately, the nurse was able to squeeze out a lot of the fluid that had bubbled under his skin and the arsenic is not toxic to your tissues the way that many chemotherapy agents are. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to properly insert the needle on her second try, either. She ended up paging the nurse who helped install the port. He came up with an extra long needle and after a couple more sticks, they were finally able to get the arsenic going.

Sometimes we just feel cursed. It seems like every complication known to modern medicine, and a few that aren't, crop up at every turn. It's never as simple or as pain free as the doctors tells us it's going to be. Forgive me if I'm just a bit skeptical about medical advice at this point.