It's out! The long slithering forked tongue snake known lovingly as "my Hickman" was removed yesterday in a relatively painless procedure. Widely praised by every nurse that ever had to use it, I don't miss it. Even better, I didn't spike a fever last night for the first time in almost a week. I was tempted to ask the surgeon if I could take my Hickman home in a jar but thought better of it. Gina took a picture of it so I'll always be able to remember the guy. 

To make matters even better I scored a trifecta yesterday....my white blood cell count rose significantly and my platelets held their own instead of dropping. So, with no fever and rising white blood counts, I'm going to press to get out of the hospital today. I'm working on my speech now.