Nothing is Easy for Arabella

Poor Arabella.  This morning we went and got her PIC line.  They used anesthesia, but she didn’t need the breathing tube – I am so grateful!

The PIC line is a long term IV.  Bella is a hard stick and loses her IVs every couple of days.  So this is a better solution for her.  You can read more about one here.

The team dropped us off and headed back off to the 1st floor to their next project.  The nurse came in to look at the line and it wouldn’t flush.  It was already blocked.  Nothing is easy for this poor kid!  They called them back.  We’ll see what happens.

They removed some of the dressing around the line and it flushed, so maybe it was just kinked or something.

Now on to the rest of the day….

We are leaving the ICU.  Bella is doing so much better.  But where to put her?  They would like a step down from ICU, but not all the way to a floor bed.  So we’ll see what’s available.  Turns out not much is available.  15th floor’s step down is full.  The ICU is almost full.  We’ll see where we end up.  Looks like we are going to the 7th floor.  Change of plans – it’s up to 15.

I just spoke with the cardiologist.  The surgery has been delayed four to six weeks – ugh.  All because of a virus.  Amazing.  He explained that the heart-lung bypass machine tends to suppress the immune system.  So if she had something floating around in there, life could be very bad.  So we wait.  Of course, my next question is – where do we wait?  It looks like we are working on heading home.  He said they have sent kids home on oxygen and ng tubes before, but they don’t like to.  We’ll see what the next couple of days bring.