This past Monday Carly had her “tubie” (port-a-cath) removed. This is a significant milestone in Carly’s treatment and is a symbol of the end of her chemotherapy. But, it’s also the beginning of life after treatment. Hopefully a long life without ever experiencing a treatment that makes you worse before you can get better. I’ve been thinking about this event for quite some time now and have come to the conclusion that this is not the end. Cancer and cancer treatment are unlike more common health maladies like high cholesterol or breaking a bone. She will never be “Out of the woods”; she will always be on the edge of the woods looking out to a normal life, with the darkness of cancer at her back.
The surgical procedure of removing Carly’s port-a-cath took less than an hour but between the pre-op checks and recovery it took most of the day. She coped well with the surgery except for the ride home when she experienced car sickness, but quickly recovered once home. This recovery was short lived when Kelcie arrived home from school with a fever and flu-like symptoms. Carly started experiencing the same symptoms later that night. Kelcie recovered less than 24 hours later, but Carly has just started to feel better today. Henni and I were extremely worried that she may have an infection but after talking with the OR nurse we ruled that out. Nonetheless, it was extremely disconcerting. On one hand we knew that the logical explanation was that she was exposed to the same bug as Kelcie but in her weakened state and right after surgery we couldn’t help but be worried.
Today Kelcie and Carly’s cousins from Virginia visited. The girls had a ball playing with Kelson and Morgan, and also seeing newborn twins Evan and Brindle. Now we have our eyes set on our trip to Disney. This will be our first family trip in almost two years. It’s been a long two years and the girls deserve it. Hopefully we can just forget about what has happened, even for only a week, because as soon as we get back Carly has an all day appointment at Children’s Hospital pain management clinic. Then shortly after that she has some follow up scans.
