Day Six

I'm finally home!!! Well I got home earlier today and slept for a long time but now I'm awake and ready to share! My last infusion of DHE was at 6:30 this morning, and luckily I slept through most of it and didn't wake up nauseous. So when I woke up, my mom offered to get me a coffee, which I accepted of course. Then I ordered breakfast: pancakes and string cheese. By the time breakfast came, an hour later, I had gotten the PICC line removed and was just waiting for the paperwork to be discharged. Getting the tube out of my arm was a little bit uncomfortable... But cool at the same time! Now to start off, when I say "tube," the image that pops into my head is a PVC pipe. The tube in my vein was much much much smaller than that of course. So you have a visual, the tube's diameter was about 2 times smaller than that of the cords used on Apple headphones. Now here comes the cool part. You don't have nerves inside your veins, so I didn't feel the tube in my arm. All I felt was the tube pulling at the site it was inserted. It kinda stung, and was sore when she pressed gauze on it to stop it from bleeding. The cool part was that in order for the tube to come out easily, I had to hum while she was pulling it out. Sounds strange right? Well it's actually pretty cool why I needed to hum. When you breathe in, your lungs expand to let the air in, so it forms a sort of vacuum inside you. The rest of your body is then a small part of that vacuum, and sucks in as well. You can guess why I would not want the tube to be sucked back into my arm... The second the tube touched the outside air, it has the possibility to obtain germs that would then be passed right into my bloodstream if it went back inside my vein. So, humming is a way for the doctor to know for sure that I am breathing out, pushing the air out of me, forming a backwards vacuum, guiding the tube outside of my body. When I hummed, she (the doctor) gently pulled. 

When that was all done, I ate my breakfast, drank my coffee, and changed into a comfy outfit for the drive home. Usually I don't fall asleep in cars, and if I do, it's when I'm stretched all the way out in the very backseat with a blanket and pillows. Today, I slept almost the whole ride home with my head slumped over onto my arms, which were on the armrest. Then, I ate Taco Bell at home and took a nap. When I woke up, I watched more supernatural then we got Japanese food for dinner. Then I went to bed at 8:00 and woke up just a little bit ago, with enough energy to post. Then I will be sleeping some more. Even though I just sat there while I was in the hospital, I'm exhausted. I knew I would be, but I didn't realize  just how exhausted I would be. I'm mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally exhausted. I am going to have to build up my strength, because I can barely lift my laptop without being tired afterwards. Luckily, I've got nothing better to do than rest up this week, hopefully with some friends for part of the time too. 

Thank you all for your prayers, they carried me through the hospital and continue to carry me now. I think I'm gonna sleep now though.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

Love always, 

Sierra