Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Leaky Central Line

Kaitlyn has gotten up at 8:00am the last two mornings. She is back to her home routine. We didn't feel Physio every four hours was necessary anymore, as we aren't getting anything up and Kaitlyn sounds clear. Her secretions are slightly thicker than normal and we are having to suction her more frequently, but this is probably due to surgery, intubation and some pretty hefty antibiotics.

We have been on the floor since yesterday. We will be able to go home as soon as we are up to full feeds and off TPN. So far we haven't even started feeds. Yesterday surgery wanted us to slightly raise Kaitlyn's tube to allow some fluids to remain in the stomach, but still allow some drainage. Today Kaitlyn's tube has been vented to a sixty cc syringe allowing only air to escape. If she tolerates this fine we will start dribbling in some pedialyte tomorrow and see how she does.

Kaitlyn's central line is acting funny today. The nurse tried to get Kaitlyn's bloodwork this morning fom the proximal lumin of her central line and was unsuccessful! She was using a ten cc syringe and pulled back really hard, and I mean really hard! I told her before she started that she may have more success using a three cc syringe and she said but this is a central line. I told her that we have had trouble in the past getting blood from Kaitlyn's central line, but I don't think that she believed me. Kaitlyn will now have to endure finger pokes the rest of her stay for the TPN and meds.

A short time after the nurse failed to get blood Kaitlyn's proximal lumin in her central line started leaking. Surgery wanted the proximal lumin hep. blocked and we are to use the distal lumin for TPN, lipids, maintenance, and meds. Since we cannot run TPN and meds at the same time, and some of her meds can only be run so fast, her TPN will have to be concentrated tomorrow just to get into her what she needs for proper nutrition. This stay just keeps getting more and more frustrating!

No comments: