Always Knock On Wood

Today we were changing the dressing on Kaylee's central line. For those who do not know, this is a line into a major artery by which we can give Kaylee drugs. I had never been a big fan of this particular line into Kaylee's neck. Put aside the fact that a great hookin' tube was coming out of my daughter's neck, it has been oozing blood, wiggling around and carrying on from the beginning. Today the sutures that were holding it in gave way and the whole thing came out. While there was a bit of blood, there was no immediate danger to Kaylee when this happened however it has made the next bit a whole lot more complicated that it was!

Kaylee needs a central line because her course of antibiotics (which goes until November 3rd) is delivered through it. Getting a peripheral line (a line into her arm or leg) into Kaylee is hard and they stop working usually within a few days and we can't constantly be putting new ones in because that will cause scar tissue to build up and make it even harder to get a line in - seeing as she will need at least two more surgeries before her first birthday we need to preserve all the line access we can get!

So we are giving Kaylee's meds a different way until tomorrow when a cardiac theatre will be available to put in her line under a general anaesthetic - making the third general she has had so far. It isn't hugely dangerous but is also not without it's risks. The fact that she will have oral antibiotics overnight (and NASTY ones at that) also bugs me as it will muck up her gut flora.

So what have we learned boys and girls? We have learned never to say "Tomorrow we will try suck feeds.". It seems to always end in tears! Every time we have said it so far, something has happened to stop it!