My New Little Friend

Yesterday was an eventful day for me at the hospital.  I was given a new source of nourishment which brings great hope to a seemingly hopeless situation.  The nutrition specialist decided that it was time to insert a CENTRAL PICK LINE (I think that's what it's called).  This is a special type of IV that is inserted into my upper arm and into a main artery that reaches just above my heart.  It was quite the process.

At 9:30am a porter came to get me from my room and take me down to the radiology wing of the hospital.  Luckily for me my maternal grandparents are here visiting and were able to accompany me down to the surgery room.  Grandma and Grandpa were able to come into the room with me and listern to the explanation from the doctor who would be doing the procedure.  Sometimes I just get too much information at once here and it is good to have someone else listening to it too.  The procedure itself did not take too long, but it was not exactly what I had expected.  The worst part was the beginning of the procedure when they froze an area of skin on the inside of my upper arm.  The freezing really hurt, which is somewhat ironic, but once I was frozen it seemed to be okay.  First the doctor used an ultrasound to locate the veins and arteries in my upper arm to determine which one they would use to reach my heart.  Another doctor then came in and cleaned my arm in preparation for the wire that would be inserted.  Using what seemed to be x-ray the doctor inserted the wire and could see where it was travelling inside of my arm.  I too got to watch the wire on a big screen, which was kind of neat.  The wire travelled from my upper arm, into an artery and then to a point just above my heart. Once the wire was in place it was time to insert the tubing of my special IV.  The tubing was guided to the same placed as the wire as it was placed around it and slowly fed into me.  When the tubing was then in place, the wire was removed, as it had fulfilled it's purpose as a guide. The finishing touches were a few small stitches at the entry site and a large bandage.  All that remained on the outside of my arm were two dangling IV portals.  In all the procedure took no more than 30 minutes.

After my central pick line was inserted I was transported back up to my room in the Maternity Ward.  When I returned there and stepped off the bed I had been transported on, the room began to spin. I quickly found my way to my regular bed and explained to the porter I was very dizzy and light-headed.  He told me that was to be expected with this procedure and that I needed to stay on bed rest for a minimum of 2 hours.  I decided longer might be neccessary.

Because the freezing was still in my arm when I first returned to my room, I could not tell what it was going to feel like.  I also did not see what it looked like because it was covered by a bandage.  The freezing began to come out mid-afternoon and I realized quickly why the nurse had asked me to take some tylenol.  The throbbing in my arm if nothing else distracted me from the nausea for a while... haha.

At about 7pm my nourishment source (TPN) was started at a very slow rate through the new pick line.  The mixture resembling mushroom soup, was hooked up to one of the two portals of my line.  A regular IV fluid was hooked up to the other portal and my "SUPPER" began.  So far the nourishment has not made a very large difference, but I was told after about 24 hours I should start to feel like I havea little bit more energy at least.  I look forward to walking to the bathroom and back without getting out of breath... haha.  But the BEST NEWS of all is that with the TPN nourishment the baby will be getting all of it's neccessary nutrients to grow and be healthy.  And although I would love to feel better, our NUMBER ONE concern is the health of our child!