My Caregiver

Throughout my journey with cancer, I've had to have shots at home on and off, and now with the picc line I have to have both catheters flushed three times a week. My dear sweet husband has taken on the burden of all of this caregiving.

Starting with the Arixtra shots when I developed a clot around my mediport catheter, he would give me the shot in the belly daily. It was embarrassing for me, but he was like an old pro. These shots were easy - they were prefilled with medication.

Once my counts started dropping on a regular basis, he had to start giving me Neupogen shots. When we started these he gave them to me in the arm because he was still giving me the Arixtra in the belly. With Neupogen, he had to fill the syringes himself.

Neupogen has been a semi-regular thing for me, and when they put the picc line in they put me back on the arixtra for five days - two of which he had to do.

His latest task is flushing my picc catheters with Heparin (a blood thinner to prevent clotting in the line). He has taken on this task with ease.

He has done so much: taking off work, stepping up and taking care of the girls, the house, the laundry, the shopping, and has never complained or even seemed to be irritated or overwhelmed by it all. I know that his role has been hard but he had managed to do it all with grace. I'm sure once this is all over he will be breathing a little easier, but he has been a rock.