Bye Bye Tubies!!!!

Now you see it,

now you don't!


It's been an interesting couple of days. Honestly I've hit a brick wall, emotionally. The frustration in not knowing what's going on with her line and what our plan will be makes the days extremely difficult. I think a large part of it is I just don't understand how all of the medical works. How the cultures grow, how they ID the organisms, and what does it all really mean? It's so complicated.

This morning I asked if they had anything planned for Chelsea b/c I was leaving to go on Logan's field trip (thank you Sharon for watching Chelsea for me!!!) They gave me the go ahead and said they weren't doing anything today, so I left. I called to check in and finally reached the nurse around 1pm and she had the resident call me right back because ... they decided they wanted to pull her line ... today! I got this bit of information while riding on a school bus with a load of 4 and 5 year olds. They asked if I could be there by 3pm ... ummmm ... no. So we compromised on 5 and I headed back to KC right after the field trip (more on the trip later.) I was looking forward to a night at home with Logan, but I needed to be here. Ryan drove up right after work and made it just in time. They put in an IV (the radiology nurse did an excellent job, got it on the first try), then they sedated her and virtually pulled out the Hickman. They saved the part of the catheter that was inside her body to send off for cultures. This is a particularly stubborn organism growing (there were actually THREE different things growing in Wednesday's culture).

The plan now is to continue administering her antibiotic through the IV she has in her arm. With all the meds though, the IV may not last long. They will likely do cultures again tomorrow (which will require another stick b/c they don't want to risk losing this great access they've gotten in her arm). If those cultures are negative for 48 hours then we can talk about what kind of a line to put in her ... but they're strongly recommending a pic line. We'll be here at least 3-4 days, and honestly I think they'll keep us here through the next round, so this could turn into a 40 day + hospital stay ... sigh.

If any of my blog readers have experience w/ a pic, will you please share? Ryan and I are very uneasy about it. The idea of a line coming from her arm while we do 7 days straight of chemo (on a very short cord) scares us to death. She is so extremely active, I would say much more active then typical 2 year olds. She also doesn't have the comprehension that some of the 2 year olds around here have. When we stay stop Chelsea, or stay there, to keep her from pulling her line out, she doesn't stop. She just keeps going. She's just not quite old enough to reason with yet where some of the 2 year olds up here are and have more awareness of the tubes and poles etc. If anyone could share their experiences that would be great, if you would prefer to email my email addy is on the side bar! Thanks, and more updates to come this weekend. It's been a busy two days, so I have lots to share.

Some pre-sedation pix:

showing my new IV.... Ashley did a great job! She said she'd be happy to come up and do it for her again if she needs another one Monday!



Slightly sedated, it's almost time to take out those tubies!



Mommy trying to sing to me ... little does she know, I'm already knocked out!




She's still knocked out, an hour and a half later. They only gave her versed and fentenol, but we think she's just extra tired b/c she hasn't been sleeping well. We turned out the lights and are just going to let her sleep (maybe through the night). Poor kid is pooped! Ryan and are headed to get a bite to eat, so they're putting monitors on her just so they can be sure she's fine while we're gone. Nobody is worried, we just think she's super tired.