Chemo ends

The Ara-C petered out at 3:25 p.m. Currently there is just one bag hanging on Vlad's Christmas tree. He's taking a shower without the Christmas tree.

A momentous day for us to be sure. But it also must be a milestone for the staff. Making their debuts today: the palliative care nurse and the chaplain. The nurse manager Robert came by, too. Plus we lost LaVorne, a quite experienced chemo nurse.

A couple of people on staff asked if we were leaving tomorrow. We thought it was standard op to stay the 3-4 weeks. We haven't heard different from the doc. But we'll be asking in the morning.

Mallick came by and checked Vlad's lungs. They're awesome. The nebulizer treatments are now going to be every 6 hours instead of 3 hours. He's going out of town with his kids the rest of the week.

Nurse tale du jour: Terrye is from outside Roanoke, Va. We were just in that neck of the woods in October. Our friends Peter and Karla moved to Hampton, Tenn., in the Smoky Mountains and we saw the gorgeous fall foliage. Terrye said her family sends her leaves from the Blue Ridge Mountain trees every fall. She makes a collage every fall but has to throw it away because the colors fade. She said they used to paint the colored leaves with something when she was a girl that would keep the colors. But no one remembers what it is.