Hickman Line

I had started typing a post called "Weekend part 2"

Martha had her chest closed on Sunday.

Monday morning her chest drains were taken out.

Monday evening she was extubated.

She was doing brilliantly.

By Tuesday morning they were starting to be concerned that one of her lines was bleeding.

Then on Tuesday afternoon I found myself in the middle of a scene for Casualty again.

During her CPAP break Martha began to struggle, she was struggling to take a breath again. She vomited, a lot.

She should have calmed down once the CPAP mask went back on - but she didn't.

The consultant was left with no choice but to re-intubate her.

He took us in to a side room and explained there were two possible scenarios for why Martha had deteriorated so quickly.

1) She aspirated some of her Vomit.

2) Her line was infected, and when they were flushing it - she had a "bug shower" and her body was having a reaction to try to fight off the infection.

Martha has had so many lines inserted over the past 4 months that they are almost all thrombosed. They couldn't be sure how long she had been without Millrinone or Morphine on Tuesday morning, but they needed it back up and running again ASAP - they had no choice but to insert a canulla in her scalp.

Her blood gasses were brilliant over night, we left to get some sleep at 3am.

Martha was put on the emergency list for Interventional Radiology today to get a Hickman line inserted. She went down at 1pm and returned shortly before 3pm - the line in place. She had behaved well for the procedure.

Now we need to get her back to where she was Tuesday morning.

GM 

x