They took away my bionic vein

I had my IV port taken out today.

It was amazingly easy. It's ironic that the part of surgery (minor outpatient surgery, anyway) that hurts the most is administering the anesthesia that keeps you from feeling pain.

I was a little nervous about having the catheter removed for a couple of reasons. First, it was really uncomfortable when they inserted it, and I was aware of it in my vein for about two weeks afterwards. I wasn't looking forward to the sensation of having it removed.

Secondly, I was also concerned about the blood clot that was in that vein somehow breaking loose when they removed the catheter. However, they told me that since I've been on the Lovenox (the blood thinner I self-inject daily), the risk of the blood clot actually adhering to the catheter (which is what would cause the clot to break free when the catheter was removed) was very, very low.

Turns out, I didn't have to worry about the discomfort either. After they numbed my arm and opened me up, I took a deep breath to relax. They thought I was experiencing discomfort and reassured me that the catheter was already out. I never even felt it. It was great. And, it instantly relaxed me because I had all these concerns about that process, and it was already over.

The funny thing is, it also helped me to relax a little about my upcoming surgery. I realized that I have all these concerns about it, but it'll be over before I even know it, and then I can move on to the next thing. That was kind of a cool, new perspective on the whole thing.

I had another really cool thing happen yesterday. One of the actors in my film is a hypnotherapist and, last night, he brought me three CDs for dealing with everything I'm going through. They are self-hypnosis CDs for:

• Setting goals (with my health)
• Reprogramming cancer
• Preparing for surgery

He also gave me a link to download one for pain management. I'm really excited about this because I have two friends that have recently started doing self-hypnosis. One of them is specifically doing it for pain management and has had tremendous results with it. Tuesday night, I was telling my therapist about it, and she suggested that I try to learn some techniques from them before my surgery. The very next night, low and behold, three self-hypnosis CDs land right in my lap.

Sometimes, I really love how the Universe works.