Over

Chemo's over. About 6:15 PM yesterday my chemo pump began beeping insistently. Infusion ended, it read. All 200 ml injected. I pushed the "silence" button, but the thing kept on beeping every two minutes, even after I tried to turn it off.

We were in the middle of dinner, so I just kept pushing the "silence" button while we finished eating and drove to the hospital for my 7 PM appointment. I would've been out of there in 15 minutes, but they didn't have an explicit order to pull my PICC line, so they had to page a nurse.

As they peeled away the layers of tape and dressing, I was happily surprised to see that my skin — buried under that stuff for 10 days — looked normal. Just a bit red in a couple of spots. No gangrene, thanks.

Last blood draw through the PICC before they pulled it. (From now on it'll be needles, but I'd rather get poked than wear that f-ing thing any longer.) Pulling the line out was a sensation I'd rather not repeat, making a kind of zp-zp-zp-zp-zp-zp sound as they dragged all 47 cm of it through my poor vein. Thankfully, this only lasted five seconds. Then it was done.

Half-life of 2-CdA is 5.4 hours. It's mid-day on Tuesday now, about 18 hours post-chemo. So my blood levels are now less than one-eighth of what they were yesterday, but there's still some drug in my system. I felt completely blitzed when I woke up today. I'm guessing the chemo fatigue effect will linger another day or so. Will try to get my blood test results later and see how the hemoglobin looks.

The highlight of my day today: an unassisted, non-Saran-wrapped shower. YES.