Jason was telling our bishop the other day that we had made it through 2009 without ANY emergency room visits for Parker--well, now we've already had one for 2010. (I guess we jinxed ourselves!) Jason, Parker, and I spent a few LONG hours in the ER at Baptist Hospital last night. Parker has been having some issues since the first week of January with his IV site, both allergic reactions to the dressing and a possible local infection. He has had allergic reactions a few times over the 20 months since the IV was placed, but never an infection. Infection and a central line are NOT two things that you want to hear together. Because a central line goes directly to Parker's heart, an infection in the line would potentially be life-threatening. So, it's not something we want to mess around with. Yesterday, the area around his IV site was very red and swollen and there was moisture inside the dressing. Jason and I knew that our only options were to take him to the ER or wait through the night and take him first thing in the morning. But, as I mentioned above, an infection is bad news for Parker, so we decided to err on the side of caution and take him in to the ER last night. Unfortunately, in the end it seemed like a waste of time and we wished we had waited until this morning. Taking a child with a rare chronic health condition to the ER has proven to NOT be very beneficial for us--they just don't know how to handle him. Anyway, I called his cardiologist this morning and they arranged to have the pediatric surgeon see him this afternoon. It turned out that it is NOT an infection--thank goodness--but just a severe allergic reaction to the dressing AGAIN!!! Poor kid. Eventually we're going to run out of things to cover his IV site with! The surgeon's only suggestion was to change the way we clean the actual site and not use the tegaderm dressing ever again. I had to change the dressing with the surgeon looking over my shoulder--talk about nerve-wracking!!! But I did it and when I was finished he said, "I wouldn't change a thing except maybe have you come work here." So I took that as a compliment that I must have done OK. Hopefully, Parker's site will heal quickly and this will be the first and last ER visit of 2010!
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5 comments:
Oh goodness, Jenny! I have only spent one or two late nights in the ER and never for anything that serious. Way to go- your nursing skills must be fabulous! Good luck and hopefully the little one will be feeling better soon.
Oh no ER visits are never fun for you guys, it's always crazy to hear about how they just don't know what to do with Parker when you guys go but hey it's still January maybe your just getting them over with this first month of the year and then hopefully no more. Hey congrats on the skills of changing the site you should just add to your name Jen RN,MD, PCT,RT, etc. We are glad that Parker is okay and hope that you find a dressing out there made for his skin.
Oh Jen so sorry to hear that. Hope Parker is feeling better soon! And I agree with Suzette about your name, lol.
So glad everything turned out good with Parker, hope it will keep on going well. Hope everyone else is in good health. Love Mom
No fun! I am glad hear that its not an infection though. The ER is not a good place too because of all the sick people around! I hope he heals very quickly!
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