hiccup

Slight hiccup in the agenda today. Claire had blood work and labs this morning at the hospital. While there, it was discovered that there was a crack in her pic line. The pic line is the one that's been on the inside of her upper arm, since Octoberish, that we use to do blood draws with and put her under for procedures. Last night, I noticed some blood on the sleeve of her shirt when we changed her into her pajamas, but we couldn't find or see anything else wrong anywhere. So I mentioned it to the nurse today and sure enough, as they drew the blood back and pushed the flushes in, just one or two drops of blood leaked out a small crack.

Ugh. It ended up being a bloody mess by the time we were all through at the hospital...both she and I had blood all over our cloths. When she cried, the blood didn't just come out in one or two drops...it streamed out. And she cried. A lot. She heard me talking to the nurses about what to do with the line and she didn't like the sounds of it. After the pic nurses came to check things out, they knew it for sure needed to be taken out. I was hoping we could have left it alone and just let them take it out tomorrow when she's already asleep, but it was too big of a risk for infection to keep it in, even just for a day. So they pulled it out. And it really wasn't painful for her, just scary. But with 4 of us holding her down, she eventually calmed down and let the job get done. (Bad day to forget to bring that favorite blanket of hers.) We had to hang out there for a little bit afterwards to make sure she didn't bleed too much, but eventually made it home. She was a trooper. It was understandably very scary for even a medically experienced 4-year old. But the tough cookie that she is shined through yet again.

During lunch she said, "that was a rough morning, wasn't it?!" Yes it was. So rough that she decided to change into her pj's after lunch, thinking that the meal we just ate was dinner, instead of lunch. She was ready to throw in the towel and call it a day!

Too bad ballet class happened to be right after our usual 30 min blood work. With tutu on and all, she was disappointed to miss out on the fun. Better luck next week, eh?!

So the question is, do we put another line back in? Don't know yet. Things for tomorrow are still good to go; they'll just have to put her to sleep with the mask (which she loathes) and place an IV line after she's out.

It's not really good news. But it's not really bad news either. Just interesting that it happened. But having one less line to flush twice a day, change dressings, keep dry and worry about infection...is a nice thing to have GONE. It's just a trade off for more pokes and going to sleep with a mask. But if blood pokes are minimal and anesthesia is only needed monthly, I think I'd prefer having the line gone. We'll see what the docs think.

After we were home and the trauma was over, Claire was pretty excited herself to have it gone. "Now I just hope, I really really hope, my bile duct can get bigger and they can take out my other tube too so I can go swimming" was her first comment! "Maybe that will happen tomorrow, right Mom. I hope so. I really really hope so!!"

Oh the hope and faith of a child. I hope so too. I've hoped so since October! One day. But I'm not expecting tomorrow to be the day. We'll see. But that swimming pool better be open when that day really does come!! Hopefully at least some improvements after tomorrow's procedures. I'm going to follow Claire suit and go get those jammies on now that dinner is officially over!