Positives

Yes, as in positives...
I'm up on the Island again today (this is Kathleen writing)
Margie was released from the hospital yesterday, having spent six days checked in, a new Hickman Catheter installed in her chest, and administered her first rounds of chemotherapy for what is being called "Leukemia of the soft tissue"

The Hickman Catheter is a fascinating device as it is a portal of sorts and most direct line to the heart.
Literally, an opening is created right on the chest which feed into a particular vein in the heart. From the outside, what we see is a circular bandage about 1" diameter, with two I.V. lines coming off. When Margie goes for procedures or blood draws or chemo, the medical staff just hooks up to one of the lines to put something in or take something out. It eliminates the need for the IV lines in and out of the arms or legs for a patient who is having extended medical treatment.

My admiration goes to Dr. Hickman, (living) for the invention of this device and my apologies for likely describing its functions so poorly.

So, I arrived yesterday, to the boat and picked up by Robert that had just come from the pharmacy where he dropped a cool $450 on 3 prescriptions for one month doses.

Cancer is expensive.

They'd just arrived back home on the boat prior to mine, so much unpacking and sorting from the hospital was necessary.

Margie has several new features in the house, one being a chair that climbs the stairs- she sits on it  and rides it up to the second floor. Blogger has changed many of it's features and buttons, so as soon as I unravel a few of these mysteries of how to get my pics and videos from my phone to the blog, I will post. I did enable the comments area below, so feel free to chime in now and onward.

The second positive development is that she is using a walker around the house and it is quiet the change for the good. The walker is giving her the needed stability for being mobile and that confidence as well as good physical therapy is really making a difference.
She was very positive last night as we concluded the evening with a nice walk around the deck a few times, watering plants and some quality time on her lung/exhaler gizmo, which unfortunately I have no idea what it's called but its essentially it's a work out for her depleted lung abilities.
If our resident expert Cathy would like to chime in on the comment section about this, I would love the input!

Last night we had a visit and delivery from Walgreens whom will be supplying Margie with all of her Hickman Catheter needs. Yes, as lovely as the Hickmans attributes are, it is not a self maintaining device.
Chemotherapy basically wipes out the bodies natural immune system which opens the body up for infection. The Hickman, like I explained, is a direct portal to the heart. So, alas, it is imperative to keep it not only operational but bacteria free as to never allow for the introduction of infection.
Did that sound important? I hope so, cause it is vitally important.

So, after dropping a cool $700 on one month of cleaning supplies for the Cathetar,  today we'll get a visit from the nurse to go over the twice a day procedures of keeping the portal happy, healthy and infection free. Yipee!

So, loves, I'll be posting whilst up for my visit and beyond. Feel free to comment if you'd like. Margie absolutely adores your input and looks forward to her continued celebrity status as the most positive cancer patient on the planet.  As you may have figured out, I think she's amazing.

XO,
Kathleen