Day 56

Great news!  They are letting me out of the hospital today!  My blood cultures show that the bacteria infection caused by my hick man is almost clear.  The doctors feel I can get my treatment through Clinic instead of staying in the hospital!  I love Dr. Chao, he's on call in the hospital and he made the decision.  He prefers to get people out of the here asap and he said your healthy enough you don't need to be here.

As you can imagine I am thrilled.  I just have to finish getting some blood and I think an antibiotic, once that's done we can go home.  Eric just left for Tampa so this will give Dad and I some good father - daughter time.  Plus, we can try out my new walking stick and run to REI since I think I want to buy another sunscreen shirt.

I feel great other than the IV in my hand, I hate having a permanent needle stuck in your hand.  Yesterday, when they took out my hick man it was horrible.  They literally pull it out of my chest by hand, only it took three good yanks before it came out and then there was a cuff attached to my vain that they could not get it out.  Eric described the cuff like a patch for a bicycle tile, it's what held everything together.

Man it was painful, no pain medicine or numbing.  Eric nearly passed out, he had to get Dad to provide his hand for me to squeeze because he felt so bad.  Finally, the Nurse Practitioner was able to cut the cuff out.  I think since I've had the hick man since October it really became attached to my body.  It truly was horrible, I thought they were joking when they said they would just yank it out but that's what they did. It's a miracle that the spot where it came out of doesn't really hurt.  I'm afraid to look at it but so glad it's gone, now I can take a shower with only covering one hand instead of half my chest!

So for your viewing pleasure I have posted a picture of the hick man right before it was yanked out.  Sorry if it's to graphic for you but to lighten it up I'm also posting some pics of Robyn, Eric and I, perhaps even some baby geese pictures.  The baby ducks and geese have become a slight obsession of mine.

Well that's it for today, so thankful for the early release, I'm sure your thoughts, prayers and my positive attitude is what made this possible.  Keep a positive outlook on your own life it makes things easier.  Peace out from room 9210!