Wednesday, February 2, 2011

ICE chemo is done, PICC line is out

Just a quick note today. Finished my second (and final) round of ICE today. Not too bad a day. Feeling a bit off from three days of chemo in a row but nothing too bad. The good part of the day is that I had my PICC line removed since I'll be getting a port for the high dose chemo I'm getting towards the end of March. The fun thing is I got to take the PICC line home with me. And of course, I wanted to share that with you:


Yup, that's an 18" plastic snake that ran from my right tricep up into my chest and down into the superior vena cava, which is right above my heart. Hot dog! Now I have a real Borg accessory I can add that to my list of gear. Gross? Cool? A bit of both? You be the judge :)

In any event, I'll be appliance free for about 5 weeks which is really nice. Not having to wrap up my arm up every time I shower and being able to stand under the water and not have to keep my right arm elevated is certainly a nice little treat I will enjoy over the next month or so!

4 comments:

  1. Prayers. Thomas Tallis "If Ye Love Me." May God's pure love shine upon you and grace your heart with peace, healing, and joy.

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  2. I have to say that your blog has been inspiring as well as entertaining - I am a 37 year old mother of two who are 13 and 9 and I was recently diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma Stage IV had my power port put in on Monday and First round of ABVD on Tuesday of this week. Thank you for highlighting your journey and for showing me that I dont need to lay around and feel sorry for myself. My prayers are with you and your family.

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  3. It's nice to meet you, leximom10! I've been sort of waiting for you. Well, not you exactly, but I thought at some point with the wonders of Google etc. that other Hodgkin's patients would stumble across this blog. One of the reasons I've been blogging is to provide some visibility into what this experience has been like to provide some support and perspective to other folks going through this illness. So it's nice to hear that you got some value from the thoughts that Susan and I have been putting down here over the last year.

    Of course, it sucks that you have this illness and I'm sure it's rocking your world in lots of ways. Our kids are all grown (29, 25, 24, 21) and they've certainly been affected by looking down the barrel of their dad's mortality. Must be even harder with younger kids in the picture.

    I hope that your bad cells get their asses totally whipped by that ABVD, you show a great response and are soon NED (No Evidence of Disease).

    In the meanwhile, enjoy each day, hug your family and live life!

    g

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  4. You continue to be an inspiration Dad! Keep up the great work and keep the borg-part pictures coming!

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