Day 19

Well, I'm sitting here trying to warm up my little half L baby. The hydration FREEZES Mary when it comes out of the bag and goes into her central line, so I've been working on getting it warm, or at least warmer, before it goes in (thanks so much Kay for telling us about this, we're glad we have someone who knows!), at least today since by the time I'm done I'll have run 12+ hours of it. If you think about it, even infusing at room temperature is still a huge difference...65* or 70*F as compared to nearly 100*F. Yeah, that'd be enough to cool me down too. And I've been a heater bucket the last few days, so I'm using my warmth for good. Or at least I'm trying to... Right, use your powers for good?

Mary woke up this morning, 15 minutes after I'd been on the phone with Paula the scheduler who was calling to say that we didn't need to worry about coming in for the doctor's appointment, just for labs, and Mary starts saying that her Hickman Line was just killing her. And it was red and tender and I swear if I would have touched it she would have screamed and slapped me, so I called the clinic back and we headed in to have blood drawn and then to triage so it could be looked at right away. They have decided that Mary most likely has the beginning of a tunnel infection, an infection that is outside of the line in the tunnel that is made going up to where the central line enters the blood stream, apparently this isn't a BIG DEAL, it's just a big deal. So, we stuck around all afternoon so that Mary could get her first dose of Vancomycin at the clinic and then were sent home with five more doses (every 12 hours for three days) and an extra bag of hydration to run. Mary OF COURSE loves being hooked up to the pump, not. Which makes the 10 hours she'll be on it before tomorrow absolutely wonderful. The nurse asked me if I would be able to handle running the IV antibiotics around 11 or 12 tonight, about 12 hours after her last dose, or if that would be too late. And I was thinking, are you CRAZY lady? You think that's a problem? Have you ever been a caregiver? Do you know what sleep is?! Because I sure don't! And if I do know what sleep is, I only know how to do it for an hour and a half at a time! Last night Mary and I were both wide awake from about 3:30 to 4:30 in the morning. It sure makes for interesting dynamics in the morning.

So, for now, I'm warming up the Liter babies so they don't freeze Mary and enjoying our Shrek Marathon! What can I say, there's not a whole lot you can do when you're confined to the house for days on end!