A New Adventure at Home

Performing a "saline flush"

We opted to come home and continue Toe's IV treatment from here for the next week. J and I have never administered medicine via PICC before, so yesterday an Infusion Specialist came to the hospital to train us. We are administering two kinds of antibiotics - the Cefepime 3 times a day and the TOBI once a day. Each uses a different mechanism. Here's the set up for the Cefepime:

Step 1: Set up before you take the plug off Toe's PICC line. Attach tubing, prime the line, put the syringe in the machine.
Step 2: Alcohol wipe the PICC on Toe's arm and wait for the alcohol to dry completely.
Step 3: Very carefully, while still holding the PICC stump, open the syringe for saline flush (pray you opened the packaging beforehand) and attach it to the PICC line WITHOUT having Toe breathe on it.
Step 4: Connect PICC stump to the tubing hooked to the syringe in the pump and turn the machine on.

saline flush, antibiotics, alcohol wipes, tubing, and the pump

 Super simple, right? Then there's the whole - when you're done, screw the red plug into the line and save the old syringe and tubing for next Cefepime while you simultaneously saline flush the PICC line again... While crouching over the kid. In the dark. We have found it works best with four hands.

The good news is that the treatments are mostly centered around sleep time. Only one treatment during daylight hours. The antibiotic pump is surprisingly portable.

 This morning we had a visit from a local home health nurse who is available if anything goes wrong or if we have any questions.

The pump is about the size of an old-fashioned cell phone. The yellow liquid in the syringe is the antibiotic and Toe's PICC port is on his left arm, up by the pink sticker. You can just see the purple stump.

 Our entire day was pretty much filled with treatments, meals, laundry, and homework. Toe is working on a slide show (1st grade version of a Power Point presentation) on Fruit Bats. He missed the First Grade field trip to the zoo, but did get an OMSI slide show on bats from the teacher at the hospital.

This week will involve me pushing us through the schedule. The kid wants to play Legos. However, we are at home and if I can time it right, we might even be able to take a walk down the block to visit our Nana and Papa. The temperatures here are better for Toe. The last couple of days, it was over 90 and Toe wilted if we went outside. It was a sunny 63 here and we did step outside for quick errand.