Oh Canada

• Y90 procedure in the CAM building at Big Barnes with Dr. S

A young new resident came in to greet us and to go over some of the details for today's procedure. He has another procedure that he'll be doing at the same time as mine so somebody "higher up the chain" will be doing my procedure. He shares that it is a "win win situation" for me. I hold off on asking him how many of these that he has done. I did ask him about pre-meds, will they give me anything for nausea or pain? He confidently answers no, they won't be giving me anything, as most people don't get side effects that require medications.

We waited in pre-op for a few hours, but when they finally got me back to the room, Dr. S performed the entire procedure. He did have an audience of newbies and I do randomly remember hearing one of them say that he had just graduated from the University of Toronto medical school. Welcome to St. Louis? Other than that, I'm pretty out of it and I only remember the nurses remarking, more than a couple of times, about how quickly it went with Dr. S in the lead.

So that's the good news, the actual procedure went well. However, when I wake up I have alot of pain, pressure in my abdomen, and nausea. The nurses (even my favorite from the mapping) give me a couple pills to help, but I can't keep even water down. They try giving me a "light meal" of a turkey sandwich and grapes, but after a couple bites, that all comes back up too. They talk about post-radioembolization syndrome and a quick google search brings up side effects of fatigue, nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain/discomfort and cachexia (weakness of the body due to illness). But an hour later we are on our way home with vomit tray in hand.