BFF Advice

Be very careful when choosing your BFF because they might stick with you for a long, long time.

I have had this central IV line for almost 4 yrs. I thought that was good news (maybe not). I got a hole in it the other day and made arrangements for a replacement. That was interesting. I called the drs office and the message I got from him was to go to the IMC and have them do it there. DUH! The only reason I left there and went to him is because of my insurance. So he got his nurse working on making arrangements.

I knew Sunday that I would have to be heading to Utah but I could not bring myself to pack and get ready. They finally made my app't for Wed AM. So Tues afternoon I decided I'd better pack up and head out. I had a feeling that this was not going to be a good thing.

So I get to the hospital today and was told that they had orders to put in a port-a-cath. I said, "No, I don't think so." I told them I wanted the same thing that I have and they'd better call the dr and get it taken care of. He came back and said we would just put in what I want and not call the dr.

So it's off to the procedure. The first thing they did was cut around the cuff so the line would come out. Very routine, no big deal. That's when routine ended and the headache started. The line is supposed to pull right out but it had adhered further down totally where it was NOT supposed to. So he made another incision and did a bunch more cutting around the line and pulling and tugging. Long story short, 4 hrs later the line is still in, my neck and chest is very bruised and sore and the dr is beside himself. He said things like, this is amazing and bleep bleep bleep and I have never seen anything like this.

He even went in my femural vein and tried to pull the line out from the bottom. When that wasn't successful it was time to call in the vascular surgeon. I have an app't with him tomorrow and he will tell me what he is going to do and when he will do it. Most likely this will be a fairly easy out patient procedure. (We will see). I think we will do it in 2 wks when I have other dr appts scheduled. Meanwhile I will be able to use the old line that is now my BFF.

Since they went in the femural vein, I had to lay flat on my back for 2 hrs. So I was on my back for 6 1/2 hrs. Yes, I was more than ready to get out of there.

I was always told to try to keep my lines in for as long as possible and today they were saying, obviously 4 yrs was too long. What do they want.

So after we figure out how to get the old line out, we still have to figure out how to get the new line in. More fun to come. Stay tuned.