At around 9:00am they took me to IR to get my Hickman!! They tried to use the same vein that my Hickman has always been in but couldn’t successfully place it so they had to use a different vein. The procedure took 3 times the amount of time it usually takes and I am incredibly sore. Thankfully my EJ IV held out until I was able to get my Hickman.
I am thrilled to inform y’all that I am now HOME! I think Ezra was as happy as I was - he got the zoomies and gave me all sorts of kisses when we told him we were going home! :)
Did you know they actually stand you on your head to place an EJ (neck IV)?
My EJ (neck IV)
Hello friends!
So, I hit the BEYOND furious point today. If you haven’t guessed yet — my Hickman didn’t get placed today. It went from 8:00 to 11:45 to 1:55 to 2:00 to 12:50 to they could place it at 4:00 if I agreed to do it without anesthesia. Sorry, but that ain’t happening!!!! Until someone puts their tail on a table and let’s someone make a small incision, dilate that incision, tunnel a catheter that’s at least 100x the size of an IV needle through their chest, and put a granddaddy purse string stitch to hold it in place ALL without the slightest numbing……yeah, don’t even SUGGEST the POSSIBILITY let alone ask me to do so!!!! I tried my best to control myself and not take it out on the poor nurses relaying the message because it wasn’t their fault at all. I broke into tears because I was so furious at IR for these past 3 days of idiotic “we can, we can’t, we can, we can’t, we for sure can, oh sorry we can’t”!! I was sure to reassure the doctors and nurses at the brunt of my outbursts that I knew they were working hard and it wasn’t their fault, I was just over it with IR! The doctor said about IR yanking our chains and I told her mine was done broke! It really is ridiculous because the doctors and nurses are presenting it to them as emergent because of the lack of IV access but IR is putting me in as a “squeeze in somewhere” case. There is rumor that IR may have given in and it may be scheduled for 7:30 in the morning, but I have no hope left to give so…take it or leave it. I’m going on 72hrs without my blood thinner and I’ll only get around 6 or 7 of my 12 hours of formula. When they asked me about doing it without anesthesia, I told my mom that I knew the Bible says that vengeance belongs to the Lord, but I sure fire wanted some!
I must say, my nurse has done much better today than yesterday and has truly tried. After I updated last night I lost one IV and IV team put in a new one. Today, I lost both IVs that I got last night and a nurse from the ER came up and put in an EJ (IV in my neck). Right now I’m averaging between 12 and 18 hours with each IV.
I don’t understand why all of this is happening. It hurts, I’m emotionally exhausted, I wanna go home, and I’m just over it already. I know none of this took the Lord by surprise and He has a very good reason for allowing this, but my flesh is failing right now. “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” {Psalm 73:26}
And to end on a happy note…
I was able to get my spinal MRI done a little after midnight last night. Other than some herniated discs, all is well soooooooooo…. NO spinal infection and I only have to continue my antibiotics for 2 weeks instead of 6-8! Now all I have to do is get a Hickman and I can go home!
I won’t lie….. today has been horrible. I’ve been angry, disappointed, frustrated, exhausted, and bored…. Ready to be home already! The original plan as of yesterday was to hang on with the one less than par IV til I got my Hickman this morning and then hopefully getting a spinal MRI. I woke up at 5:30am and waited on transport to come get me to take me for my Hickman…and waited…and waited…and waited some more. Finally, my nurse comes in right at noon to inform me that IR (interventional radiology - department that does the Hickman) was most likely not going to get me in today. I kept watching my online chart where it had said they had me scheduled for this afternoon… they didn’t change that to confirm it wouldn’t happen today until close to 1:00 so I waited until then to take my med or start my formula. I have to be NPO for anesthesia at midnight so I won’t even get the 12 hour feeding in for today. PLUS I had to hold my blood thinner for 24 hours for the Hickman and they made up their minds that they weren’t doing it too late for me to have a dose sooooo my 24 hour hold is now 48 hours. How healthy is that for someone who gets blood clots?? I was only barely hanging onto one IV and it was already hurting like the dickens this morning (pretty obvious it was infiltrating but God forbid I might know that without nursing school) so they finally sent a rapid response nurse to try to get a second IV. She got one in one of the worst places (elbow), but I was just thanking God I had another access. The doctor came while the nurse was here trying to get a vein. She wasn’t too thrilled to learn that IR hadn’t placed a Hickman and it was going to be tomorrow. She said they had put the Hickman as priority so they told MRI to hold off until they got that in this morning, but turns out they could’ve done that today since they decided to wait on the Hickman.
They continued to use the bad IV for my pump until it turned very red and welted up and then she flushed the new one which was nearly excruciating and felt like it blew. I told her repeatedly that it really hurt but the nurse kept flushing it and feeling it til she had me in tears. She said we had to have access and she didn’t want me to be poked 3 more times tonight so it’d be best if I just hung on until I get my Hickman. Yeah, I didn’t jive with my day nurse today!!! The doctors reassured me today that they had a plan in place if something like this happened and then all the sudden I’m supposed to “hang on”??? I’ll confess it was very hard to be Christlike at that point!! I was counting the minutes until shift change. After shift change, things got done … the new nurse wouldn’t even flush the IVs because he could see they were bad. He saw how desperate I was and called a very sweet nurse who came and tried until she got 2 more IVs for me!
My chart says my Hickman is scheduled for 8am. Hoping that is true and these lines hold up through anesthesia!
Today made me wanna do this… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_pB1c5Kjxpw. My mom said I could crawl out the window onto the roof and I might actually get the news people out here! LOL I legit wanted to scream with my lungs at full capacity though!
So, what did we accomplish today?… waiting, sitting, seeing a couple doctors, napping, losing IVs, placing new IVs, and finally got to enjoy the Starbucks icy chocolate milk (thanks Momma!) that I’ve wanted all day but hadn’t had thanks to anesthesia that didn’t happen! :)
Thank you so much for your prayers! Please continue!!! Please pray that my IVs hold up, the Hickman actually gets done tomorrow, and for a smooth procedure/recovery.
Here’s to hoping the very, very bad part of the day is over!
I got the echocardiogram done Monday and everything is clear with my heart.
They removed my Hickman line right after the echo was done.
They drew more blood cultures yesterday morning and all have been clear so far.
Appeasing the back pain and enjoying my favorite pastime…music :)
Both of my IVs went bad yesterday so they called the IV team. IV team could only get one new IV in me. So they had me waiting on a certain certified nurse/doctor to place an EJ (IV in the neck). They never came and it was getting to a point I was going to miss my antibiotic so they got the nighttime IV team supervisor to come try. Thankfully, he got one for me and I got my antibiotic. This morning, my next to last placed IV started going bad. They came up with a plan… they’re working on getting my new Hickman placed tomorrow morning and they’re hoping one IV will hang on til then. They got permission from the doctor to do my antibiotic early so they would be sure to get it in me today before I officially lose the IV my Benadryl pump has been using and then that infusion have to occupy the only IV left. They got my antibiotic done and moved my pump to my better working IV. We’re keeping the not-so-good one for now in hopes that taking a break from the Benadryl in that line will help it calm down and last a little longer. If something would happen before morning and I start losing the last IV, they’ll get someone certified from the ER to come place an EJ (IV in the neck) for me.
They are working out how to do an MRI and keep me on my Benadryl pump for the duration. All my aches, chills, nausea, headaches, etc are gone, but my back pain persists. Although the back pain is slowly improving, it’s a little concerning to the Infectious Disease (ID) doctor that I’m still having it. So they just want to do an MRI to ensure it isn’t infection in my spine that is causing the pain. Praise the Lord I’ve been able to sleep better the last 2 nights!
I asked the ID doctor this morning about when she thought I might get to go home…. She said that I had to get my Hickman placed and the MRI done and then we can talk about home plans. Hoping for Friday!!!
Thank y’all so much for your continued prayers, love, and support! It means the world to me!
