Day 46 - What a wonderful Day - Spring is here

We woke early (at least I did) and had a lazy morning reading the paper, giving Adele her antibiotic and enjoying the fact everything looked OK. Mom & Dad stopped by after church service and we called Isaac's for our lunch. After a great lunch and conversation, they left and Adele laid down on the sofa to read and keep her arm stable.

After so many dressing changes this past week, her right arm is missing patches of outer epidermis and is very sore to the touch. Again everything looked OK, so I went upstairs to compute and have a relaxing afternoon.

Then at 1:30 Adele called me in a weak voice, and when I went downstairs, she was holding a towel against a bloody and dripping (blood) arm. Just laying down apparently started the blood flowing again. We called the nurse again, and after 2 return calls they said they would be there soon. She got here around 2:30 and after spending 20 minutes taking the old dressing off, and trying not to get blood everywhere, spent 15 minutes trying to stop the flow.

OK, now the home nurse said to call the doctor. Which one? The Infectious Disease one or the Oncologist? Figured the ID doctor ordered the PICC line and that was the one bleeding, so called them. The on-call doctor called back, and agreed we should go to the emergency room, but asked us to call the Oncologist and have them as the admitting physician. OK - got through the second time, as we were getting to Lancaster, and he OK'd the emergency room approach.

Got to the emergency room at 4:30 and just got home at 7:45. Short version is the PICC line is removed and a regular IV line is being used. The IV nurse had to hold pressure on the wound after removing the PICC line, for over 10 minutes. She then cleaned up Adele and added a pressure dressing over the IV dressing. Also advised cold compress for the next 24 hours.

So - Adele has a problem with any of these catheters that have been used in her the past 7 months. We should know by now - problems will occur. We are both exhausted, weary and just waiting to get to bed. IV is running now for the night's edition of antibiotic and then we flush the line and can do something else - like sleep.

Praise to our Father for allowing us to have such wonderful care while Adele is going through this. I did pray for patience last year, and I am guessing He is teaching me that right now.

Thanks to everyone - Rick