Home IV

[Guest guest]

Hi Don and ,

My son Eli was sent home with an IV last month. He needed cipro to treat his

newly

colonized pseudo. infection and they were afraid to keep him in the hospital,

all

the picu admits were respitory crap and they didn't have an isolation room

avail.

Anyway, they attempted to place a PICC line which is more long-term and really

the

way to go. If you do this, request they place your child under anesthesia

because

it works so much better and is less traumatic to the child. They were ultimately

unsuccessful with Eli because...well they don't know. The current theory is that

he may have normal length veins scrunched up in short limbs and this makes it

impossible to advance the line. It could be, who knows??! We ended up going home

with a periferal(sp?) line in his thumb and kept it open about 5 days which was

phenomenal. After that one blew, we were looking at a central iv line (they

actually

scheduled the OR without telling us!) or shoving cipro capsules down Eli's

throat

like he was a little dog or something;-) This last was my fantastic husband's

idea and worked great. Eli is so good about it now that he not only cooperates,

he'll remind you it's time for meds! Must get that from his dad.

If you do have an iv placed here are some things I'd request:

-have a PICC line placed...then you don't have to turn your kid into a

pincushion

-have them anesthesize your child so they have the best opportunity of placing

any kind of line. this is important because the better the placement, the longer

it will probably last.

-use the skin numbing cream, it helps some.

-request the best .....pediatric/neonatal anesthesiologists and surgeons

As far as care of the iv,

-we gave 1 hour infusions of cipro every 12hours

-before the infusion, you have to flush the line with heperin

-after the infusion, you flush with saline and heperin

-every 6 hours you flush with heperin

the meds can irritate/burn the vein and sometimes it really hurts. this

can be hard for your child to accept but just hold them close and love them.

I think our kids realize that their lives often have painful things that have to

be done and then we can get on to the real business of having more fun.

home health agencies will be there to support and train you and you sound like

such capable, good attitude people... I know you'll do great!

Good Luck and let us know if we can help...:-)

Tamiko, mom to Eli 2.5yo w/achondroplastic dwarfism, trach and host to

everyone's

fav...pseudomonas>;(