Mountain Clams

Erika and the hospital: the rest of the story

On Friday, as of about 9 AM, Erika no longer had a fever. Her breathing was normal, though she had a little bit of cough still. Her chest x-ray still showed gunk in her lungs that needed to clear up.

Saturday, Erika still had no fever and had less cough than before, but the day ended with a little more trauma than usual. Her IV line, which was in her foot since all her arm veins were blown, stopped working. Rather than abuse her other foot, and still make her suffer continued pokes for blood draw, the decision was made to put in a PICC line. Basically, it's a really big, long-term IV line with special caps for putting in medicines and taking out samples, and a protocol to prevent clotting. This involved sterile technique, and an ultrasound machine to see where the needle was going. Yes, I said "needle." Erika heard it, and for whatever reason decided she had to look at said needle. She immediately began freaking out about needles and getting stuck yet again, even after having had a valium. She also really, really didn't like the burning sensation caused by the Lidocaine. A second valium was given, and she just kept on freaking out. It took the nurse, the person putting in the PICC line, and me to try to calm her down enough to get the line in. It ended up taking over two hours when all was said and done, but it was in place, flushed and working fine. Starting at her elbow, it went in about 53 centimeters into her chest. A chest x-ray confirmed the placement, and it was backed out about 2 cm.

On Sunday, her resting heart rate dipped below 75 occasionally. The chest x-ray was looking pretty good. Everything seemed to be going better. Monday was more of the same. We were promised a visit by the hematologist to talk about her blood levels. She never showed up, though, so at about 7:40, I went home for a bit. I caught up on watching stuff on the TiVO before it got erased, watching 24, Crossing Jordon, FutureWeapons, Numb3rs and Smallville. A quick check of the mail, download of email, and a shower, and I headed back to the hospital, arriving Tuesday morning at 3:11 AM. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but finally got out of bed around 9:30 AM, being interrupted only a couple times when Erika got her vital signs taken.

This morning, Erika had a breakfast burrito with eggs, green chili and potatoes. And a bowl of cereal with a banana. And a blueberry muffin. And orange juice. And apricot nectar. I think she's still hungry.

As I wrote the above, it was morning, and we had received three votes to send Erika home from various doctors. We waited all day for the pediatrician to give his opinion. Finally, at 5:30, I decided to go home and do the usual stuff, then come back for another night's sleep in the hospital, on the little convertible chair. While I was at home, I got a call from the pediatrician saying that Erika could go home today if I could come back and pick her up. He saw me at the hospital, but didn't see me leave!

Ah, well, she's out now. We had to stop by the pharmacy on the way home. The pharmacists took 45 minutes filling her various prescriptions, which was kindof bad since we showed up 20 minutes before their closing time. They weren't able to get everything so we'll have to go back to pick up the rest later on. At least she is home, and I can sleep in an actual bed again!

Labels: kids, medical

posted by Brett @ 11:10 PM