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Have PICC line, will travel.
A week ago Sunday, my elder daughter, E, woke up with a fever and abdominal pain. We knew from experience that it was probably a recurrance of cholangitis, an infection of the bile ducts that she is prone to due to her underlying liver disease. After waiting a few hours to see if she'd get better or worse, we called her doctor and were instructed to go into the hospital.
This happened in September, and she got better quickly, so we had high hopes this time. Instead, it turned into her longest hospitalization yet.
In the past, they've given her IV antibiotics for several days, and then sent her home taking the oral form of the same antibiotics. Her recurrances have always occurred while she wasn't taking any antibiotics--until this time. When she became sick this time, she was still on antibiotics from the last occurance.
The doctors think the strain of bacteria in her bile ducts have developed an immunity to the antibiotics she's taken in the past. Consequently, we had to try different antibiotics until we found something that worked. Something was found, but it took time, and she was eventually discharged on Friday morning.
One complication was that the new antibiotics she's taking only come in IV form. That means, we--my husband and I-- have to give her IV antibiotics, four times a day, every six hours. The day before E was discharged, the doctors inserted a PICC line into E. Unlike the IV catheters she usually has, the PICC line can be left in for several weeks.
She was nervous about it; she dislikes IV catheters and was afraid this would be as uncomfortable as the ones she usually has. I was nervous about it; me?, injecting medicine into a tube that leads near my daughter's heart? Yikes!
But I was taught how to do it while still at the hospital, and a home care nurse came to our house for her first dose and supervised me. I, in turn, taught my husband how to do it, and now we're both seasoned pros.
Today, E went back to school for the first time since she got sick. (That's eleven days she's been absent since school began in September!) I met with E's guidance counselor to discuss getting her classified as having medical issues in order to qualify her for tutoring if she has another long absence in the future. I also met with the school nurse and taught her how to give E her medicine so E can have her noon dose without my needing to come in.
I have to give kudos to NASA. I was told that they developed the medicine delivery system that E is using. In the hospital they use gravity-dependent systems--hence the reason saline and meds hang from poles--but NASA needed a way to give meds without gravity, so they developed a pressure system instead. Her medicine is inside what is essentially a water balloon, sealed inside a pressurized plastic bottle. When we hook the line from the bottle up to E's PICC line and release the clamp, the gas pressure inside the bottle squeezes the balloon and pushes the medicine through the line into E. She can even walk around with the bottle in her pocket! The pressure is just enough that the medicine goes into her over a half hour period. Pretty cool!
One side effect of this illness--E's PELD score will be reevaluated, so we're one step closer to a liver transplant.
This happened in September, and she got better quickly, so we had high hopes this time. Instead, it turned into her longest hospitalization yet.
In the past, they've given her IV antibiotics for several days, and then sent her home taking the oral form of the same antibiotics. Her recurrances have always occurred while she wasn't taking any antibiotics--until this time. When she became sick this time, she was still on antibiotics from the last occurance.
The doctors think the strain of bacteria in her bile ducts have developed an immunity to the antibiotics she's taken in the past. Consequently, we had to try different antibiotics until we found something that worked. Something was found, but it took time, and she was eventually discharged on Friday morning.
One complication was that the new antibiotics she's taking only come in IV form. That means, we--my husband and I-- have to give her IV antibiotics, four times a day, every six hours. The day before E was discharged, the doctors inserted a PICC line into E. Unlike the IV catheters she usually has, the PICC line can be left in for several weeks.
She was nervous about it; she dislikes IV catheters and was afraid this would be as uncomfortable as the ones she usually has. I was nervous about it; me?, injecting medicine into a tube that leads near my daughter's heart? Yikes!
But I was taught how to do it while still at the hospital, and a home care nurse came to our house for her first dose and supervised me. I, in turn, taught my husband how to do it, and now we're both seasoned pros.
Today, E went back to school for the first time since she got sick. (That's eleven days she's been absent since school began in September!) I met with E's guidance counselor to discuss getting her classified as having medical issues in order to qualify her for tutoring if she has another long absence in the future. I also met with the school nurse and taught her how to give E her medicine so E can have her noon dose without my needing to come in.
I have to give kudos to NASA. I was told that they developed the medicine delivery system that E is using. In the hospital they use gravity-dependent systems--hence the reason saline and meds hang from poles--but NASA needed a way to give meds without gravity, so they developed a pressure system instead. Her medicine is inside what is essentially a water balloon, sealed inside a pressurized plastic bottle. When we hook the line from the bottle up to E's PICC line and release the clamp, the gas pressure inside the bottle squeezes the balloon and pushes the medicine through the line into E. She can even walk around with the bottle in her pocket! The pressure is just enough that the medicine goes into her over a half hour period. Pretty cool!
One side effect of this illness--E's PELD score will be reevaluated, so we're one step closer to a liver transplant.