No real news here. Waiting to see the doctor on the results from the levels test again after they changed the dosage. My rash hasn't improved any. I think it may be getting worse....umm yep it's worse. And now even itchier!! At least I have hydro-cortizone cream to help.
Still hoping/praying I go home on Monday! I'll post updates when I have them, of course.
-Andrea
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Hospital Stay- Saturday
I have developed a skin allergy to the clear dressing for the PICC line. So as of late last night and now still into Saturday, my eyes are puffy and my left arm (where the PICC is) is covered in red itchy bumps. They gave me benadryl last night and today but it's not helping too much. They also changed the dressing to a more cloth mesh dressing instead of the clear adhesive.
Allergy
New dressing
My tobra levels came back and they were too low. So instead of getting a tobramyacin does every 24 hours, I'm getting a dose every 8 hours. So now I have 8 antibiotic doses each day instead of only 6. They are going to check my levels again after 3 more doses and if they are good, I *might* be home by Monday afternoon, Tuesday for sure. If the levels still aren't good, I have to wait another 3 doses to try again. Each retry is two more needle sticks in my arm.
I'm getting a little homesick.
I was a specimen for the med students today. It's a learning hospital. I don't like that. It was a serious blow to my self-esteem today. After talking to Mom some, and getting a nice shower, I feel a little better.
I'm standing and walking as much as possible today. For instance, I'm standing up while typing this post. I'm so sick of being in that hospital bed. I know that it's not helping me get better, so I'm up and about now. Standing for about 10 minutes has already helped me feel like I can get through this feeling good about everything. I'm fighting.
-Andrea
Allergy
New dressing
My tobra levels came back and they were too low. So instead of getting a tobramyacin does every 24 hours, I'm getting a dose every 8 hours. So now I have 8 antibiotic doses each day instead of only 6. They are going to check my levels again after 3 more doses and if they are good, I *might* be home by Monday afternoon, Tuesday for sure. If the levels still aren't good, I have to wait another 3 doses to try again. Each retry is two more needle sticks in my arm.
I'm getting a little homesick.
I was a specimen for the med students today. It's a learning hospital. I don't like that. It was a serious blow to my self-esteem today. After talking to Mom some, and getting a nice shower, I feel a little better.
I'm standing and walking as much as possible today. For instance, I'm standing up while typing this post. I'm so sick of being in that hospital bed. I know that it's not helping me get better, so I'm up and about now. Standing for about 10 minutes has already helped me feel like I can get through this feeling good about everything. I'm fighting.
-Andrea
Friday, August 19, 2011
Hospital Days- with some pictures!
Well these last few days sure have been eventful! Let's recap:
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
I was admitted on Wednesday and immediately had a peripheral IV put in my left arm. I was later started on the doses of my 3 antibiotics: Tobramyacin, Zyvox, and Fortaz (I'm mostly sure on these spellings!!). They are taken every 24 hours, 12 hours, and 8 hours, respectively. (6am, 8am, 2pm, 6pm, 8pm and 10pm) Oh boy am I going to be busy when I get home taking care of all of this! Other than getting moved in and settled, Wednesday was pretty quiet. Oh, I did have a chest X-ray taken too. I mentioned before that one major difference is the care that the RTs take with each patient doing treatment and hand CPT 3 times a day. So I spent my evening treatment being tag-teamed by two RTs beating me, and while I'm not yet again really used to hand CPT, it went well.
(The peripheral)
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Rise and shine at 4am thanks to a youngin' across the hall very unhappy about something. Did I mention I love being on the ped's floor?? No I really do, but that's the one downside... screaming babies!! Oh well. It's a small price to pay. I slept poorly until 5:30 when a familiar face walks in my door for morning CPT! Remember Gaelin, my friend from middle school, high school, and my freshman year roommate? Her brother-in-law is an RT up at this hospital so he came to visit/beat on me! It was quite a nice surprise and I was glad to see him. Around 9am, I was asked to move rooms! Turns out I was placed in the only available room that day and it has special equipment, so they like to keep that room open when possible. Mom had to work out of town on Thursday, so I thought I was going to be alone most of the day... boy was I wrong! Visitor after visitor after visitor! It was a ton of fun. Bad part of the day? Getting my PICC placed. It was so much simpler at the other hospital that I was spoiled! Here, I was a wreck. And post-PICC placement, I had to have a chest X-Ray again to check the placement. I was sick in that room due to stress, anxiety from the PICC procedure, and not eating enough that day. Luckily, I had one of my best friends waiting for me in my room when I got back. The right visitor will do wonders.... I also had a 3rd year med student drop by, an old friend too! He just happened to be doing his ped's rotation this week.
We were hoping that by my evening antibiotic doses, the radiology department would have been able to review my x-rays and I could have used the PICC, but the server was down (ahh, the digital age...) and so I had to use the peripheral again. It hurt, a lot. My veins were screaming, but with a little help from a friend, I made it through another dose. The late evening brought good news of using the PICC, so they flushed it and pulled my peripheral (YES!). I slept much better last night.
(the PICC)
Friday, August 19, 2011
I was awakened at 5:30 again by my same friend RT for my morning treatment. 6am meant antibiotics, but since I was using the PICC, it didn't hurt very much. Today has been very lazy and quiet, I've actually enjoyed it. After mom and I chatted with the case worker about getting home IVs set up, she went to work. I've spent the afternoon/early evening so far catching up on TV shows, writing this post (which is probably as long as my last several posts put together!), and veggin' out until my aunt gets here with my Buffalo Wild Wings dinner! No hospital food for me!!
My PICC pull date is set for Sept. 1 assuming my Tobra levels are good. They took the trough level at 2 and the peak level will be taken at 9. Prayers for the right numbers so I can go home on Monday! I miss my puppy and my house, even though I'll do there what I've been doing here: nothing. I'd rather do nothing at my house than at a hospital. Although I will say, as hospital experiences have gone, this one has been pretty smooth, and I'm so grateful.
Have any of you had the PICC with the two ports before? What's the point? Everyone I've asked just tells me "It's the exact same as the single one" so why the extra hardware? Just curious.
I'll keep you updated!
-Andrea
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
I was admitted on Wednesday and immediately had a peripheral IV put in my left arm. I was later started on the doses of my 3 antibiotics: Tobramyacin, Zyvox, and Fortaz (I'm mostly sure on these spellings!!). They are taken every 24 hours, 12 hours, and 8 hours, respectively. (6am, 8am, 2pm, 6pm, 8pm and 10pm) Oh boy am I going to be busy when I get home taking care of all of this! Other than getting moved in and settled, Wednesday was pretty quiet. Oh, I did have a chest X-ray taken too. I mentioned before that one major difference is the care that the RTs take with each patient doing treatment and hand CPT 3 times a day. So I spent my evening treatment being tag-teamed by two RTs beating me, and while I'm not yet again really used to hand CPT, it went well.
(The peripheral)
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Rise and shine at 4am thanks to a youngin' across the hall very unhappy about something. Did I mention I love being on the ped's floor?? No I really do, but that's the one downside... screaming babies!! Oh well. It's a small price to pay. I slept poorly until 5:30 when a familiar face walks in my door for morning CPT! Remember Gaelin, my friend from middle school, high school, and my freshman year roommate? Her brother-in-law is an RT up at this hospital so he came to visit/beat on me! It was quite a nice surprise and I was glad to see him. Around 9am, I was asked to move rooms! Turns out I was placed in the only available room that day and it has special equipment, so they like to keep that room open when possible. Mom had to work out of town on Thursday, so I thought I was going to be alone most of the day... boy was I wrong! Visitor after visitor after visitor! It was a ton of fun. Bad part of the day? Getting my PICC placed. It was so much simpler at the other hospital that I was spoiled! Here, I was a wreck. And post-PICC placement, I had to have a chest X-Ray again to check the placement. I was sick in that room due to stress, anxiety from the PICC procedure, and not eating enough that day. Luckily, I had one of my best friends waiting for me in my room when I got back. The right visitor will do wonders.... I also had a 3rd year med student drop by, an old friend too! He just happened to be doing his ped's rotation this week.
We were hoping that by my evening antibiotic doses, the radiology department would have been able to review my x-rays and I could have used the PICC, but the server was down (ahh, the digital age...) and so I had to use the peripheral again. It hurt, a lot. My veins were screaming, but with a little help from a friend, I made it through another dose. The late evening brought good news of using the PICC, so they flushed it and pulled my peripheral (YES!). I slept much better last night.
(the PICC)
Friday, August 19, 2011
I was awakened at 5:30 again by my same friend RT for my morning treatment. 6am meant antibiotics, but since I was using the PICC, it didn't hurt very much. Today has been very lazy and quiet, I've actually enjoyed it. After mom and I chatted with the case worker about getting home IVs set up, she went to work. I've spent the afternoon/early evening so far catching up on TV shows, writing this post (which is probably as long as my last several posts put together!), and veggin' out until my aunt gets here with my Buffalo Wild Wings dinner! No hospital food for me!!
My PICC pull date is set for Sept. 1 assuming my Tobra levels are good. They took the trough level at 2 and the peak level will be taken at 9. Prayers for the right numbers so I can go home on Monday! I miss my puppy and my house, even though I'll do there what I've been doing here: nothing. I'd rather do nothing at my house than at a hospital. Although I will say, as hospital experiences have gone, this one has been pretty smooth, and I'm so grateful.
Have any of you had the PICC with the two ports before? What's the point? Everyone I've asked just tells me "It's the exact same as the single one" so why the extra hardware? Just curious.
I'll keep you updated!
-Andrea
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
We have WiFi!
I knew there wouldn't be a surviving hospital without WiFi. Ta-da! An evening post.
I'm on 3 IV antibiotics this time instead of two and the current one is making my face tingle. Weird. I just looked it up and that is a side-effect, so I'm not worried. lol
This is a new hospital for me but it's working out really well. So far so good. They even have, get this, HAND CPT 3 times a day. I'm floored. I'm used to RTs dropping off a Vest and leaving. This is much better, medically. And the people have all been really nice.
My arm still hurts from my peripheral (I'll get a PICC later) so I don't want to type much.
Although I'll leave you with this: Fancy Jello
-Andrea
"When"
The "when" of my hospitalization has been decided: today! I'm glad to finally have a plan in place, it helps with my stress levels. Also, due to some already set plans, I will be more in charge of my home IVs than ever before. I know I can do this, so I'm not nervous.
I'm going to a different hospital than ever before, and I don't think this one has wifi (booo...) so plan A is not to take my computer with me. If they do have wifi, then Mom will bring it later. Either way, it's time to restart my "No IVs" stats from the 2 1/2 years I went without back to zero. I had a good run and planning this next run to be even longer than the last.
So if there is no wifi in my room, farewell for several days! If not, I'll post tonight probably!
Keep me in your thoughts/prayers if you don't mind. I need all the help I can get!
-Annie
I'm going to a different hospital than ever before, and I don't think this one has wifi (booo...) so plan A is not to take my computer with me. If they do have wifi, then Mom will bring it later. Either way, it's time to restart my "No IVs" stats from the 2 1/2 years I went without back to zero. I had a good run and planning this next run to be even longer than the last.
So if there is no wifi in my room, farewell for several days! If not, I'll post tonight probably!
Keep me in your thoughts/prayers if you don't mind. I need all the help I can get!
-Annie
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