What an interesting morning.  

For example, did you know?

No, my morning did not include blue whales or elephants....

merely a port removal.

It turned out I had my choice of sedation or a local anesthetic for the procedure; I opted for the local, which I figured would give me the opportunity to watch.  

I had to angle my head away, and surprisingly they had no mirrors available (would you believe that I was the first person 'in hundreds of these' who wanted to watch?) but one of the nurses got her compact out of her purse for me to use.  The whole procedure was really quite interesting, although I'm pretty sure the doctor was less than thrilled that I kept saying I wanted to watch.  I'm guessing he expected me to flinch or jump up when he made the incision.  

While I am known for being squeamish (I've been known to faint around another's injury) I do very well when it has to do with me.  Another surprise was how little it bled.  

One they actually started (an hour late, due to complications with an earlier procedure in that room) it only took about 10 minutes from start to finish.  I had asked for the port since Alex expressed a desire to see it.  Knowing he would appreciate any gore, I also requested they not clean it up afterwards; surprisingly, it came out pretty clean.  And here it is, just like it came out:

  

  I've got to keep the incision dry for 48 hours, and then no immersion (pool, hot tub, etc.) for 3 weeks, so I guess I'm done swimming for the summer.  The stitches will dissolve on their own; of course I don't want to disturb them while they're doing their job (the incision is quite deep) so I won't be doing any upper body stuff at the gym for a while.