No more Hickman line

I had a lot on, yesterday, and I was far too tired by the evening to do any writing. Sorry about that.

I woke up a bit earlier than usual, or rather was woken for my blood and couldn't get back to sleep afterwards. The ward round was quite late in the morning, and filled me in on what was planned for the day; platelets first, to bring my clotting up, then cyclophosphamide and my intrathecal methotrexate in the afternoon. Quite a busy day. Everything went quite smoothly, but I really was quite busy; the only time I got a chance to lie quietly all day was after my intrathecal, and for some reason I just couldn't sleep then. Instead I watched the final hour of The Godfather Part II, which I started watching on boxing day. Eventually, around nine o'clock, I finally felt very tired indeed and went to sleep early.

Today was a lot quieter. It was decided that my Hickman line had finally become more of a liability than an asset, so it would be coming out at some point in the afternoon, which also meant that I'd need a peripheral line inserted. Apart from these little procedures, though, nothing out of the ordinary was planned. Mum came round to visit after lunch (fish and chips), and Shamus inserted a peripheral line into my right hand. It's weird being hooked up by my arm, again, after so long using the Hickman. I was given my cytarabine injection into the new line, then it was flushed and disconnected; it's nice being free of the lines. I had a little sleep, then Emma — one of the registrars here — removed my Hickman line. Due to the amount of damage I'd already done to it, it was literally just a matter of snipping the suture anchoring it to my skin and pulling it straight out. It wouldn't have held in for very much longer, even if it hadn't been removed today, I don't think.

Anyway, I'm quite tired again, now. Good night.