Thinning the herd

Tonight a new home health nurse came out to change the dressing on my pic line. When she arrived, Bryan said "oh boy" while she was still in her car; as she entered I understood why. Her hair was white and stringy from what I can only describe as a bottle of bleach, her teeth were black, her hands were raw, red and shaky, and she reaked of cigarettes.
She came in very nervous and immediatly expressed concern about our dogs, who were in fact outside playing with each other. I had to reassure her that they were outside and wouldn't come in to get her.
While I was already a bit nervous, I tried to clear my head and told myself that even though her appearance left me nervous, to not judge a book by its cover...she could still be a great nurse. My concerns were not unfounded however, I came soon to find out.
After she opened her tackle box of supplies, she proceeded to remove the dressing from my pic line. First, the gloves she selected were two sizes too big, so her fingers kept sticking to the tape. Second, I had to talk her through the removal process, as she seemed completely confused by the whole procedure. She had failed to remove the tape from the actual site, but rather pulled everything from the other end of my arm, so when she came to the part where the line actually entered my arm, all the tape was stuck to itself and to the cord. As she started to pull the tape from my arm, she proceeded to pull the pic line out as well. I of course said "oh crap, my line is getting pulled again." She responded, "it's okay, I can just push it back in." Of course I immediately told her that there would be no pushing of any lines back into my arm. She tried to reason with me that she was concerned that the line would be too far out. I explained that I would rather she leave it out, secure it and let me get it re-checked tomorrow than have her shove it back in, since the last nurse did the same thing and put me in a situation where I had to go to the ER to get it fixed since she shoved it into my heart.
I had to continue explaining this to her for a few minutes before she understood that in fact there would be no pushing back in of the line. She put new tape on and said she was done. She didn't check my blood pressure, or my temperature. I asked if I needed to sign the form, but she said, no that won't be important this time.
She left thereafter and I immediately left a message with my doctor expressing my deep concern for the quality of nursing I am receiving at my home.
Needless to say I am pretty frustrated right now, and I have to admit I said some naughty words after she left.

Yet another visit to the hospital

I had the distinct pleasure of once again spending a day at the Tacoma General Hospital. Today was a little different however because I got to spend the day in the ER. You see, because I have a pic-line in my arm/heart, I have a home health nurse now. She is not so great. Her first visit she was over one hour late because she got lost on the way to the house; we eventually called her and led her here. Upon arrival, she went to change the dressing on my arm and sliced a small piece of skin off my inner bicep with her dirty scissors. This was of course after I said, "watch the skin" and she replied, "don't worry, I'm not going to cut you." She then proceeded to cut me.
Then Monday morn, I awoke to a bloody arm from the site where the catheter is. (not from the scissor cut, but for another unknown reason) I called the home health company who told me a nurse would be out that night. Monday night the arm-cutting nurse returned to my displeasure. She proceeded to remove the dressing and clean the area vigorously after it had bled all day. I asked her to be a little more gentle, she dismissed me. Soon thereafter, while scrubbing around the site, she yanked over an inch of the tube out of the site. I of course expressed concern to her pulling tubing from my arm. I must explain that when the catheter was put in my arm, it was a very delicate procedure and it had to be x-rayed to make certain it was placed in the right spot directly above my heart.
Anyway, when I expressed to her that I was concerned that she tugged a great deal of the meticulously-placed tubing from my bicep, she responded, "don't worry, it's fine," she then shoved it back in...the trouble is, immediately after she did this, I started to feel a tightness in my chest and my heart started to race.
The next day, after feeling tightness and pressure in my chest, especially when we were flushing my line, or adding medication, I spoke with someone from the nursing company regarding my chest tightness and discomfort. The lady on the phone told me I was probably just having an anxiety attack, and recommended not watching when the line was being flushed. I of course said this was not in fact the case, but rather the nurse messing with the line the night prior probably had something to do with it. There was no convinceing her, so I gave up and decided to tough it out.
Today, after another night of discomfort and a racing heart, I called again and spoke with a real-live nurse. After telling the story of Monday night's debacle, the nurse immediately started to freak out and told me to go straight to the hospital. I called my doctor to double-check and they agreed. We arrived at 12:45...it was after 6pm before I was seen. I watched the waiting room completely empty, (except for me,) and then refill twice before I won the prize. Finally I was seen by a doctor who took one look at the site and determined the line was too far in my arm. He pulled the dressing off and pulled it back a couple centimeters. As soon as he did, I felt immediate relief. (go figure) Of course I had to stay there for 2 hours just to be sure I wasn't having any other problems-I wasn't. We got home at 9:30.
The highlight of the evening was when a mentally unstable older woman (who was unwashed and barely dressed) was dumped off in the waiting room by the paramedics. She yelled at the staff and after being denied water, proceeded to stick her hand down her throat to make herself throw-up. She did this so much that the floor was covered, and it took 2 hours for the "environmental services" people to come clean it up.
Needless to say I'm still pretty cranky about the whole ordeal, and Bryan is so pissed he plans on calling the nursing company in the morning to request a new nurse as well as "open up a can."
I'm off to bed now, but will continue to update this as more adventures ensue.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful

Many have you have requested photos of me in my pregnant state. I have thus obliged. However because I've been in and out of the hospital for the last 3 weeks and am pretty much bound to sitting as much as possible, I'm looking especially fabulous. :-) The sitting picture is how you would find me if you came to visit...sitting in the chair, hooked to an IV, heating pad on my neck, remote close by, caffeine free diet coke and a glass of water at the ready. (I've removed my bucket for the photo) ;-) It seems I spilled some water on my shirt...oh well, I'm doing the best I can.

In other news, my IV is running, but I'm still sick. My doctor has now ordered meds as well as fluids through the port. A nurse will be here tomorrow to switch me over.
My kidneys are working better now, but my blood pressure is still really low and my heart is 98-1120 beats per minute. I have been advised by the home health nurse to stay sitting as much as I can, with my feet elevated; the low blood pressure makes me pretty dizzy. Although you can't tell, in the past 2 weeks, I've lost almost 15 lbs...I've gained 2 back, but I assume that's just fluid. Me legs are pretty scrawny under the sweat pants; I've got no muscle tone left, and the sitting all day is only adding to the weakness. We'll keep updating this as more information is available.

Back home again

So I'm back at the house after yet another 5 days in the hospital. I now have a permanant IV port in my arm and a home health company is coming this afternoon to get me hooked up to my very own IV machine. Luckily I know what to do since I took care of my mom's IV port. Sadly however, they put the port in my right arm (something about stronger muscles holding the port in place) so I can't hook myself up...and since I have to be hooked up twice a day for 4 hrs each time, I going to have to commission friends to come plug me in when Bryan is at work.
In other news, I had some pretty serious pain in my abdomen right under my appendix scar while at the hospital. We had an ultrasound to make sure everything was okay, and it turned out that the scar tissue from my appendectomy was being torn away from my abdomen....let me tell you friends, this is a fun sensation. The ultrasound was amazing. The baby is now 5 inches long and 6oz. The baby kicked and punched and did back flips, and enjoyed showing us it's rump. I can feel it wiggling around sometimes, especially at night, when it really gets moving. It especially gets excited when Bryan talks close to my belly, which is really fun.
We tried to see if the baby is a boy or a girl...the tech spent a great deal of time between the legs, where we saw nothing...because I'm only 16.5 weeks, it's still a bit early to be sure. All bets are currently on a girl however.
Yesterday we got a little bit of troubling news however. My blood panel showed that the baby might have downs syndrome. The doctor asked if we wanted to do an amniocentesis. After a few hours of prayer and discussion, we decided it wasn't worth the risk. We were concerned that if it does have downs and has a heart problem (which is pretty common,) it might need extra care that we would need to prepare for. However the risk of an amnio is that it could cause me to go into labor, and the baby is still too little to be able to survive--which is what lead us to decline the test.
So now there's a little bit of concern that the baby may have a problem, but I know right now that it's active and growing and healthy, so I will try not to dwell too much, knowing no matter what we get, we will love and care for it the same.
And that's the news...I'm home-bound indefinately so if you in the area, give me a call.

Steph's Favorite Vacation Destination

Steph is back at her favorite vacation destination....Tacoma General Hospital. Steph has been put back into the hospital for dehydration again. This time, they are going to rehydrate her, then they are going to put in a pick line so she can have her own filling station at home. She will be in the next few days so please keep her in your prayers.

Bryan

Home For Now

I was finally discharged from the hospital today after a five-day stay. I'm still feeling pretty crappy, but I haven't thrown up in 48 hours, so that's encouraging. They put me on another medicine, protonix, a drug that turns off the "pumps" in my stomach. It seems to have made a difference. Since I've hardly eaten anything of substance in the past two weeks, and have lost over 10 pounds, I'll be spending the next few days resting. Hopefully I won't need a "fill up" again any time soon. Meanwhile, the baby continues to grow strong and wiggly. My belly now protrudes quite obviously...I'll try to get a picture posted soon.

Steph's Hospital Stay

Greetings! Steph was put into the hospital on Wednesday Jan 03, 2007 for severe dehydration. She has been on an IV since 2:00 pm on Wed and is still not hydrated. Now she is having a severe headache and is always feeling like she is going to throw up. The problem with that feeling is she has not had anything in her stomach since Sunday morning. They are watching her closely and keeping her in Tacoma General until she is able to eat solid foods and keep them down. She has not even been able to keep water down so I feel it may be awhile.

On the up side, they say the baby is doing well. The baby is very active! We just ask that you keep Steph and the baby in your prayers.

Bryan