I had a wonderful introspective look back on 2007: The Year That Was planned as my next blog post, but fate decided to intervene not once but in several separate ways. I will get to that entry eventually, but right now there is much updating to be done.
Unfortunately the Internet security settings at the hospital have been tightened once again, so I am no longer able to blog from there (talk about writer's block - literally!). That means that blogging will have to be squeezed into my already hectic time at home, but I will continue to do my best.
Christmas was very enjoyable and relaxed in 8D. This is the first holiday season where we weren't the ones rushing from place to place, and it was nice to have family come to us instead of vice-versa. Of course, there was a fair amount of driving to and fro with Emily, but other than that it was quite fun. Both children got spoiled with gifts, and everybody had a blast. Leucan hosted a brunch for the 8D families on Christmas day, and two days later a caterer treated the floor to a gourmet lunch buffet. On the 28th, the Fassinas had their traditional Christmas fondue and gift exchange, and the Skira turkey lunch and gift exchange was on the 30th. And although we did have to give the Charlow turkey dinner a miss this year, the left-overs delivered to us were delicious.
Of course we can't expect everything to go smoothly, and so Benjamin decided to throw us a curve ball - or at least his Broviac (the central line) did. On December 29th, after almost 6 months of use (the last two months of which it was securely taped to Benjamin in a futile attempt to prolong it's life), one of the lines on the Broviac started leaking fluids through hairline cracks. The offending line was immediately clamped with large rubber tipped surgical clamps - a temporary fix, especially since we had to tape the clamp to Benjamin's chest to prevent it from hanging down between his knees. They finally decided to try to either fix or replace the Broviac on New Year's Eve, so with less than 9 hours til the new year Benjamin was in the operating room.
Before I go into what happened next, I just want to explain the Broviac a little more. It is a central line or catheter which is threaded under the skin and into an artery (ideally under the clavicle, but otherwise in the neck). It is not a needle, but rather a length of flexible thin plastic tubing, and to insert it (or repair it) you require a length of wire to be threaded through this tubing to give temporary rigidity. Once in place the wire is removed from the tubing, and the insertion scar is stitched closed. Now, Benjamin's Broviac was hell bent on ruining as many New Year's Eves party as possible. The wire was inserted into the existing tubing and got caught on something within the tubing. This caused the tubing to separate completely from the rest of the Broviac, and be pushed further down the artery towards the heart, with the wire still stuck in the tubing. Pulling back got nowhere as swelling was preventing any backwards movement. So a team from cardiology had to be assembled to insert a tube into Benjamin's femoral vein (in his groin), which would then run up through his heart and out the other side so that a teeny tiny lasso could catch this delinquent piece of tubing and pull it out through his groin. Just assembling the team took a good couple of hours as the on-call cardiologist was not qualified to do this procedure, and there seemed to be some problem finding one who was willing to sacrifice his evening.
Benjamin was transported from the 10th to the 3rd floor (where the special angioplasty rooms are), and more than 4 hours after he went into OR the tubing and the wire were removed - not by the cardiologist however. The plan was for the surgeon to pull out the wire from the top and for the cardiologist to lasso the tubing from below. My theory is that in all that waiting for the necessary staff to be assembled, the swelling around the wire and tubing subsided. Because the wire and tubing were well stuck together, when the surgeon finally pulled on the wire to allow the cardiologist to do his thing, he pulled out the tubing too! Roger and I knew that they had removed the piece when we heard roars of laughter from the OR and shouts of "Good job!" By 11:00 Benjamin was finally back in his room, and I was able to dash off to my parents' house in time for a quick midnight toast before collapsing.
But after all of this Benjamin now had no more central line and needed the 2 IV lines which had been put in his feet. And that meant that until a new central line was put in, we needed to keep him off his feet to save those lines. Luckily New Year's Day, he was in no shape to even try to stand until late evening, and then Gravol was all that was needed to keep him down and put him to sleep.
We will continue this story in another post, but now we have to go to the visitation for a patient who passed away on Friday night. That's another post too.
Unfortunately the Internet security settings at the hospital have been tightened once again, so I am no longer able to blog from there (talk about writer's block - literally!). That means that blogging will have to be squeezed into my already hectic time at home, but I will continue to do my best.
Christmas was very enjoyable and relaxed in 8D. This is the first holiday season where we weren't the ones rushing from place to place, and it was nice to have family come to us instead of vice-versa. Of course, there was a fair amount of driving to and fro with Emily, but other than that it was quite fun. Both children got spoiled with gifts, and everybody had a blast. Leucan hosted a brunch for the 8D families on Christmas day, and two days later a caterer treated the floor to a gourmet lunch buffet. On the 28th, the Fassinas had their traditional Christmas fondue and gift exchange, and the Skira turkey lunch and gift exchange was on the 30th. And although we did have to give the Charlow turkey dinner a miss this year, the left-overs delivered to us were delicious.
Of course we can't expect everything to go smoothly, and so Benjamin decided to throw us a curve ball - or at least his Broviac (the central line) did. On December 29th, after almost 6 months of use (the last two months of which it was securely taped to Benjamin in a futile attempt to prolong it's life), one of the lines on the Broviac started leaking fluids through hairline cracks. The offending line was immediately clamped with large rubber tipped surgical clamps - a temporary fix, especially since we had to tape the clamp to Benjamin's chest to prevent it from hanging down between his knees. They finally decided to try to either fix or replace the Broviac on New Year's Eve, so with less than 9 hours til the new year Benjamin was in the operating room. Before I go into what happened next, I just want to explain the Broviac a little more. It is a central line or catheter which is threaded under the skin and into an artery (ideally under the clavicle, but otherwise in the neck). It is not a needle, but rather a length of flexible thin plastic tubing, and to insert it (or repair it) you require a length of wire to be threaded through this tubing to give temporary rigidity. Once in place the wire is removed from the tubing, and the insertion scar is stitched closed. Now, Benjamin's Broviac was hell bent on ruining as many New Year's Eves party as possible. The wire was inserted into the existing tubing and got caught on something within the tubing. This caused the tubing to separate completely from the rest of the Broviac, and be pushed further down the artery towards the heart, with the wire still stuck in the tubing. Pulling back got nowhere as swelling was preventing any backwards movement. So a team from cardiology had to be assembled to insert a tube into Benjamin's femoral vein (in his groin), which would then run up through his heart and out the other side so that a teeny tiny lasso could catch this delinquent piece of tubing and pull it out through his groin. Just assembling the team took a good couple of hours as the on-call cardiologist was not qualified to do this procedure, and there seemed to be some problem finding one who was willing to sacrifice his evening.
Benjamin was transported from the 10th to the 3rd floor (where the special angioplasty rooms are), and more than 4 hours after he went into OR the tubing and the wire were removed - not by the cardiologist however. The plan was for the surgeon to pull out the wire from the top and for the cardiologist to lasso the tubing from below. My theory is that in all that waiting for the necessary staff to be assembled, the swelling around the wire and tubing subsided. Because the wire and tubing were well stuck together, when the surgeon finally pulled on the wire to allow the cardiologist to do his thing, he pulled out the tubing too! Roger and I knew that they had removed the piece when we heard roars of laughter from the OR and shouts of "Good job!" By 11:00 Benjamin was finally back in his room, and I was able to dash off to my parents' house in time for a quick midnight toast before collapsing.
But after all of this Benjamin now had no more central line and needed the 2 IV lines which had been put in his feet. And that meant that until a new central line was put in, we needed to keep him off his feet to save those lines. Luckily New Year's Day, he was in no shape to even try to stand until late evening, and then Gravol was all that was needed to keep him down and put him to sleep.
We will continue this story in another post, but now we have to go to the visitation for a patient who passed away on Friday night. That's another post too.
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