We pulled in to our garage around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday morning after a looooong week at MD Anderson. We were beat.

(So was poor Krisan who was so kind and stayed with our kids until we got home even though she had to work the next day – I got lucky when she and I met almost 20 years ago.)

Before leaving, Alan took his PICC line test that allows him to give me my meds and clean and change my dressing. It is really important that we are very careful to keep it sterile so the process of changing my dressing is VERY tough. They require him to demonstrate his abilities while a nurse observes.

Here are some pics of him as he tested:

Hardest part of the whole thing for him – getting the sterile gloves on without touching the outside of them. Gets him every time.

Hardest part of the whole thing for him – getting the sterile gloves on without touching the outside of them. Gets him every time.

Practicing the saline flush.

Practicing the saline flush.

Finishing touches on the dressing.

Finishing touches on the dressing.

Final product.

Final product.

Proud Graduate.

Proud Graduate.

Good news – he passed!

We had some drama on the way home. Home health didn’t deliver the meds they said they would. MD Anderson only discharged me because they said they would deliver them that night. They REALLY stressed that it was so important that I stay on the antibiotic schedule. The great part is that I was due for them at 4:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. REALLY convenient times.

After many phone calls to home health, our insurance and MDA, we got the okay from the on-call doctor at MDA that I’d be okay to get these doses a little late the next morning. I’d like to think it was a blessing in disguise because we would have been home at 2:30, then back up at 4:30 for meds. Ugh.

So update on me: the redness of my skin has gone away almost completely. Yahoo! I’m feeling better each day, but by the end of the day, I’m just BEAT. I have two main issues right now. One is that half of my PICC line is clogged for unknown reasons. Hoping that doesn’t become an problem. The other is that something is causing an awful allergic reaction in the form of a rash with welts around my PICC line. I had this problem two years ago, and I’m thinking it is the stuff they use to clean it. It is miserable and will require something to change because it will only get worse as I learned last time. I went looking for the blog where I talked about it, but I guess I never mentioned it. That’s surprising because I wound up in the ER at OU because it got so bad. They had no idea what to do as an alternative so they told me to put a bandaid on it.

My allergic reaction and the sophisticated solution that OU ER gave me.

A bandaid on this open entry point into my blood stream — the same wound that Alan had to go to two classes and take a test to prove he could care for it. Seems a little weird. So weird, in fact, that when we mentioned the band-aid solution to a nurse this week at MD Anderson, she almost fell over, saying, “That was at a hospital?”

This weekend, we both need time to rest, relax and recover. We are both exhausted.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers, texts, emails, Facebook posts, blog comments, etc. They all helped us feel supported and loved this past week, and we needed to be reminded of that because this past week kind of stunk.