Earlier today Jessica administered a dose of vanco through the PICC line under a nurse’s supervision; I did so myself this evening. For a parent unused to this sort of thing – by which I mean donning medical gloves and injecting syringes – I imagine it would have been scary; but for us, with all our experience in trach and g-tube cares, it was uncomplicated.
Of course we understand the gravity of it; the PICC is, when you get right down to it, a line straight to the heart. Literally. This is heavy stuff, but so were g-tube cares and trach cares – you could really do some damage if you weren’t careful.
Anyway, Namine will be going home with the PICC line in, so we’ll need to pick up some supplies (like medical gloves) if the hospital doesn’t provide them. Her chest incision seems to be healing well, and they’re being quite careful to monitor it closely. I’ll get another look at it when they change the dressing tomorrow morning.
In a pleasant change, the dressing over Namine’s incision is no longer secured to her chest via tegaderm. They’re just using good ol’ paper tape now, which is much easier on her sensitive skin. That’s a very good thing, because her chest is already red from all the strong adhesive they’ve had to use. Doctors and nurses keep asking us if her chest is red from the adhesive or if we think it could be more infection. Yes, yes, we say. She’s just that sensitive. I mean, there’s a good reason “all adhesives” is listed among the rest of her medical allergies.
Namine’s appetite has been quite lackluster as of late, and that was no surprise. Tonight’s dinner, though, was the first evidence of her getting some of her real appetite back. She ate a cheeseburger, fries, re-fried beans, and some rotisserie chicken. The nurse asked me later if I thought Namine ate well. Let me consider that for a moment. Yes, yes I do.
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