Oncology appointment

Today was oncologist day. My tumour markers from November were at 40 (still well within my norm) and I'll get today's tumour markers when I see her again in three months. We've decided that since I'm still so stable, I'll see her every three months instead of every two. It used to be that I had the tumour marker bloodwork done two weeks before I saw my oncologist but it stopped being scheduled that way and I got tired of calling them to change it.

I think things are going to change when I get my bloodwork, though. I've been getting it done in the chemo suite because I have a port-a-cath. My veins are super-crappy from my primary cancer treatment and the less they have to be accessed, the better. I've kept the port because I figured I was going to need it for treatment - and long before now, to be honest - and because it could be used to do bloodwork at the hospital, eliminating a regular assault on my crappy veins. My port gets flushed by the home care nurses at their office in between hospital appointments.

However, at today's bloodwork appointment, I was told that their new best practices are that they don't access ports unless the person is receiving treatment that day. In other words, their best practices tell them to not access ports just for bloodwork to reduce the risk of infection. In my case, the port has to be flushed at that time anyways so it's not like it would be getting an additional access to it.

I spoke with my oncologist about this and she told me that the nurses run everything there and to push back against them. The policy doesn't make sense for me or for anyone who has bloodwork the day before they have treatment (as was happening to someone while I was there). Hopefully I'll be able to convince them to continue accessing my port instead of forcing me away.