April 24, 2000 -- Day 46 --Bye, bye Hickman!!
Hi everyone!
Dave and I had a good visit to Boston today. We met with the doctor, who checked Dave out and said he's looking good. We don't need to go back for 3 weeks this time! Yay!
The best part of the trip was that the doctor said Dave should have his Hickman line removed (that's the IV line he had placed in his chest when he was admitted). It's been left in this long in case Dave needed transfusions and so blood can be drawn. But since his counts are up, and he hasn't needed any transfusions, the doctor didn't think Dave needed it anymore. So after a few phone calls by the receptionist and the nurse, they found a doctor who could remove the line if we could go right over (we needed to go to Brigham and Women's to have it done -- the clinic where we see the doctor is Dana Farber -- and we didn't have an appointment for to have it removed, so someone needed to squeeze us in). Needless to say, we hustled right over, and the woman who removed the other one Dave had (which was taken out before he left the hospital), took this one out. It was a 5 minute process, and we were on our way back to Vermont!
So he's a free man! It's kind of like having a cast taken off -- you learn to live with it, but it's sure nice when it's gone.
Dave is up to Day 45 now, and feeling better every day. His energy still starts to lag in the afternoon, but he's up and around more, and doing more things around the house. He's pretty bored, but as when he was in the hospital, bored is better than sick!
While we were in Boston, I went to visit a couple of people from Shannon's House who are in the hospital for bone marrow transplants. Bruce is on Day 16, Kristyna Day 3. Bruce is bored and ready to leave the hospital. Kristyna is feeling the side effects of chemo and radiation, so was feeling a little under the weather. But it was still nice to see both of them (and Bruce's wife Pat, too).
Then we visited Shannon's House, and saw our friends George and Al. It was nice to visit with them again, too.
So that was our trip. Spring is definitely farther along in Boston than here in the far north. They have lilacs starting to bloom -- we have leaf buds on our lilacs! Oh well, it will get here sooner or later.
Hope you're all well. We'll talk to you soon.
Allison