PICC Me

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday were unplanned hospital days for me.  

We ventured up to Cleveland on Tuesday for my chemotherapy and, of course, ran into IV issues right from the start.  My silly veins require ultrasound guidance to start the IV, and this time- we got an IV but when we went to use it for chemo, it didn't have a blood return, so it was not useable, even though it was flushable and patent (darn hospital policy).

So.....last Wednesday was PICC line day. Why not a port?  They will not insert ports if you are inpatient; ports have to be inserted outpatient. So instead, I got a PICC line in my left arm, and was thankfully able to get my chemo Wednesday afternoon and come home on Thursday.  

For my nurse and nurse practitioner friends....I was so impressed by the PICC placement team and procedure- it didn't hurt except for the lidocaine, and went in so quickly using ultrasound, less than 15 minutes.  And they use some type of sensor that sat on my chest and detected tip position, so it doesn't even require a chest x-ray to confirm position.  So cool!




Side effects have been minimal this time around.  Food tastes funny, but I’m making it a point to eat anyways.  A wee bit of nausea, but no vomiting.  

This weekend, we did some fun stuff. 


Trick-or-treat on Halloween. We had so many goblins this year compared to other years.  Sydney went around the neighborhood dressed like a hot dog with her friend.


Saturday afternoon neighborhood walk. While the sun was out. The fresh air was divine!



Saturday night dinner at 91 Wood Fired Oven while Dillon was home from school- it’s nice to take the college kids out for a nice dinner!!


The kids carved pumpkins on Sunday, even though a day or two late, hence the turkey!




I'm believing that all the prayers are working as my side effects have been tolerable and minimal.  Let's all keep up the good work and continue prayers as we go into a new week.  My treatment date this week is Wednesday afternoon, and I appreciate your thoughts and prayers if you can take a second or two during that time to think of me.

This is day 141.
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