Ports

We had an eventful and somewhat tramatic access of his port this week.  We had a nurse in a different department that must not have been used to accessing pediatric ports that had a really hard time accessing Max's line. She had to deaccess and try again 3 times.  They couldn't get blood out to get labs and were having a hard time getting the saline in, I was so focused on trying to keep Max happy and distracted that I wasn't realizing what supplies were being used. They didn't prep his skin with the normal protectant that they use and they used the wrong type of tegaderm which caused the skin on his chest to get ripped off with all the unsuccessful tries.  They tried for almost an hour to get it fixed and I didn't realize how tramatic it was to Max until we were all done,   Since then he has complained of his port hurting and having "owies" in his chest and neck.  I had to take him back in to the hospital to get x-rays the next day to rule out an issue with the placement of his port and to keep an eye on an infection getting started in the port.  He also was running a low grade fever and having some stomach issues.  We know that you don't mess around with those things and are so glad to get confirmation that everything with his port seem to be okay.  The fever and stomach problems seem to have been an unrelated issue with some new medication that he is taking.

Just a tramatic experience for Max.  We had another access done yesterday and he acted like a wounded animal, wouldn't let anyone touch him, and was so cautious of the nurse trying to do anything. I couldn't help but laugh at him as he kept reminding the nurse to get her "glubs" (gloves) on  and to make sure to flush with "hepin" (heparin).  I am so bummed that he had to endure that, he has been so good and now it seems we have backtracked a little and will need some more time to gain some more trust.

 

His port has been so nice to have, usually it is so easy to access and deaccess and with all the labs and infusions he gets it shaves tons of time off our schedule. It lies beneath the skin in his chest and is hardly noticeable.  Little Molly is just fascinated with ports and doesn't understand why her twin brother and grandma have a port and she doesn't. We are trying to convince her that a port is not a normal thing to have.   =)