Cancer Holidays - Week 14 - First Period of the Cancer Game is Over: Melanie 1, Cancer 0

That's right, I'm using a hockey analogy to describe my cancer treatment - its impossible not to in the house that I live in. For those of you who don't know, Dom is a huge Habs fan and despite this I am not a hockey "fan" - I don't mind it, I just don't really pay much attention to it - but by sheer osmosis, here I am using a hockey game analogy on my blog of all places.

On a side note, a lot of you have been asking what happened to Dom's eye. No, he didn't get into a fight at the soccer game - Dom has to wear prescription goggles because he has this weird hang up with his eyes so he refuses to wear contacts (he also has weird hang ups about mice, ants...) and so he had some sort of collision with another player and got the ball in the eye - well more like on his goggles which gave him the black eye.  If you ever want to gross Dom out just talk about something to do with your eyes and he'll get totally freaked out. My favourite thing to do is every once in awhile when I'm vacuuming, I ask Dom 'what do you think would happen if I put this close to my eye?' and he wilts like a fragile flower. So funny.


So Friday was a big day for me - the end of chemo and I got my PICC removed! 

I arrived at chemo with my theme socks on ready to go:

Dom had me all tucked in - he called it a chemo cocoon. 

I had a super nice chemo nurse, Cheryl - she was even nicer when I gave her a pile of dark chocolate and a card thanking her and all of the chemo nurses for making chemo seem "not that bad". On Thursday during our regular pre-chemo phone call, Becky, Courtney and I were wondering about the PICC removal...Anyway, chemo nurse Cheryl said the PICC removal was pretty quick as long as it doesn't get stuck - that sounds gross I know. So let's back up, the PICC looks like this:

The purple thing is what I've been walking around with for three months sticking out of my arm with an IV line that leads to the plastic T-thing and the green line that's under the clear bandaid. The clear bandaid is what they have been changing every week when I go for PICC cleaning. If you follow the green line around, you can see how it disappears into my skin - this is where it goes in my arm and takes a ride all the way to my heart - that's right, its about 35 cm long and goes all the way to my heart. If you can see the black dots on the green line, those are measurements of centimetres - that's how they tell if the PICC is in the right spot. If you remember I was complaining a few weeks ago about it being pulled out by the nurses that were cleaning my PICC and that's how we knew it was coming out - it started at 2 cm (2 dots) and by Friday it was at 5 cm (5 dots). 

Anyway, coincidentally as I was getting chemo, the lady across the aisle from me was just finishing chemo and getting her PICC removed so I totally watched her get it out. Dom had just left to go get coffee so I frantically texted him to tell him that he was missing a live pre-view of a PICC removal. He made it back just in time to get a good look at what we were going to see done to me after chemo. 

So, after chemo, chemo nurse Cheryl took my PICC out - we took a video - its gross so if you are squeemish at all and don't like blood, DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO. I don't want to get whiny comments after I post this blog from people saying they barfed a little bit in their mouth after they watched this. Its a quick video, in fact chemo nurse Cheryl said it was the fastest PICC removal she's ever done - she said "it was like butter." That's a direct quote.

Here's a link to the video if for some reason its blocked on your computer:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xnq73ymq51lv31/2014-12-12%2013.55.52.mp4?dl=0 

Kidding! That was a test video - are you really sure you want to see this?? The end is the worst so here it is, the real thing:  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cdyvlr5ier9rett/2014-12-12%2013.58.47.mp4?dl=0

Isn't that gross?!? But I'm so glad its out. I had my first shower on Sunday (I've been sticking with baths since it was way too much work to shower and keep my arm dry). I feel like a new woman! 

And here is the pièce de la résistance - when you are finished chemo they have a bell that you get to ring on the chemo ward and everyone claps. When I first heard about this I didn't think it was much of a big deal but after the past three months I have so been looking forward to reading this bell!! Here is the last video of the day - we missed the bell ringing on the video but the happy dance is definitely the best part of the video (in my humble opinion). 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8jpb3n3ms6t8gv8/2014-12-12%2014.05.22.mp4?dl=0

That's right at the end is a P.K. Subban move that he does when he scores a goal (remember I mentioned the hockey osmosis?) - I think its appropriate seeing as so far the score is Melanie 1; Cancer 0.