A Busy Night and Day

After a busy day Jim took his sleeping medication at 11 pm and 5 minutes later the infusion pump starts beeping. Well these are very clever little pumps because they give you a read-out of what's wrong. "Battery low" it says. OK we can handle that--put in 2 new batteries, then we get to restart the thing--uh-oh--I'm not my brother, okay????? So it says "1 RESUME PROGRAM" and 3 other numbered options which were Greek to me so I hit the number one--now I ask you, wouldn't you do the same? Nothing happens. So I start hitting other things: "START", "STOP", "START" again------nothing. There were several other buttons which meant nothing to me so I press them (the whole time, mind you, the damn thing is beeping like crazy). So I'm a fairly intelligent woman and think I'll reread the instructions (plenty on how to change a battery, duh, but not a word in 4 pages about reprograming). So I call the night nurse at NIH and she walks me thru the process and everything is fine and the chemo is being infused into Jim's central vein as planned. Best of all the beeping has stopped!!! Now here's the good part--Andy you're gonna love it--after I hit "1" to resume program I forgot to hit "ENTER". OK stop laughing.
So Jim says, "Barb, why don't you write everything down that you did so if it happens again we'll know what to do". Good idea. So I go downstairs to find the instruction sheet and no sooner sit down to write when I hear shouting from upstairs, "BARRRRBARRR--A" (haven't heard a shout like that since the last hip dislocation!) Ran like crazy upstairs to find hips intact, but the PICC line is not. Jim's holding up the catheter and says, "What's this???" (Mind you, in his defence, he is very groggy from the double dose of sleeping medication). So I pinch it off immediately, wrap a pressure dressing around his arm to stop bleeding, and tell him "you pinch this tube tight and don't let go while I run downstairs and get the clamp and the spill kit". I remember all the instuctions about this knowing that these meds are EXTREMELY TOXIC and use clamp, gown, and gloves (I confess I did not put the goggles on) and get all this stuff into the HAZ MAT bag after cleaning Jim's arm. Then I call the night nurse back and say, "Mary, remember me--the one who forgot to hit ENTER, well we have a new problem! " So she instructs us, after deliberating with the doc on call, to come tomorrow morning at 7 am to have a new PICC line inserted. We were both so relieved that we didn't have to go in at 12:30 am that we both slept well for 5 hours.
It took 3 hours for the nurse specialist to insert the PICC line--it seems that these veins wear out after a while. Then on to the Day Hospital for the chemo to be added and a new infusion pump. But wait Jim needs IV fluids first because he's dehydrated. "How much did you have to drink, Mr. Fay?" "Well only the glass of water that the PICC line insertionist gave me because the night nurse said NO BREAKFAST, Mr. Fay, you are having a procedure tomorrow morning." So we left there at about one ish and got home at 1:30 pm. Jim has a much needed nap and Barb visits with Susan and John who brought their grandson, Robbie, down from NJ for the Mets/Nationals game. (Poor Robie--the Mets lost). Jim wakes up soon after Susan and John leave and we're off to Alexandria Hospital to visit Kath, Dan and Charlotte and both of us finally got to hold her in our arms. She really is a darling. Our friend, Maureen, brought over dinner, Mike Monette mowed the lawn, and granddaughter, Callan, (12 yrs. old) did some cleaning and straightening in the house. Bless you all and thank you. Barbara