5.02.2012

Post Surgery: Day 19 - 3 weeks old

I can't believe that it has been 3 whole weeks since Zoe was born!  On one hand, it seems like we have been in this hospital forever... but on the other, it hardly feels like 3 weeks has really passed.  

We'll start with the good news!  Sensitivity testing came back and Zoe has been switched to the antibiotic Ancef, which will aggressively tackle her infection for 8 days intravenously.  After 8 days, they will reevaluate whether she needs to continue treatment with oral antibiotics.    




The not so good news is that the peripheral IV site that she had in her foot went bad today.  After two pediatric nurses and an IV specialist attempting several lines, it took a NICU nurse to start a line on her scalp.  It looks much worse than it is!  Besides, nothing beats seeing her tiny chest open for 4 days. The only problem is that with the intense antibiotics and regular lab draws, the scalp IV isn't very dependable as it could go bad anytime.  We can't take the risk that it might not last, especially when she is covered in bruises and old IV sites.  The only solution is to put in a PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line, which is a long term accessible IV that runs through a vein in her arm and into the Superior Vena Cava vessel.  The nice part about the PICC line is that they can draw blood and give medications through it.  No more pokes!  The only bummer is that she will have to be sedated for them to insert the line.  At least she won't be in any discomfort and puts us one step closer to her being healthy enough to go home! 

 I'm trying not to get my hopes up... but wouldn't it be such a sweet treat to spend Mother's Day with my husband and two beautiful girls in our very own home?  Okay... it's true.  I do have my hopes up.  But hey, right now... my days depend on hope!


2 comments:

Jessica said...

This is Jessica Newburn. (Newburn's wife from Provo!) I have been following your blog and thinking so much about your sweet family. Kayla didn't have such severe heart problems (hers were minor) but coupled with the medical problems she had your story is all too familiar. Kayla also had a PICC placed (3 times actually). The sedation part was hard for me to take but the PICC was wonderful. Fewer pokes for her and she was able to come home MUCH sooner because we could give her intravenous antibiotics ourselves through the PICC. We are thinking about you and praying for you all. Let us know if we could do anything!

Unknown said...

Before we went home we had a picc line put in. Because my son was a very hard poke and usally took 7 different nurses and iv specialist to finall get a line in usally. So having a picc line made things easier for my little boy.