A Little Bit of Déjà vu

This week we had one of those experiences with Parker that we dread and try not to think about, but this time around it wasn't a completely "new" experience (see a strikingly similar story here).  We've been through this once before, hence the feeling of déjà vu. However, experiencing it before doesn't make this incident any less scary, but it did help to know what to do and what to expect. Thankfully, everything went pretty well and Parker is fine. But, if you'd like to hear the story, here it is:

On Wednesday afternoon I picked up the boys from school and we headed straight to a routine check-up for Connor with his asthma doctor. They got us back quickly and the appointment went well. When we were nearly finished, Parker stood up in front of me and I noticed a dark stain on his blue shirt. I said, "What's that on your shirt?" and I pulled him closer to me. As he got closer, I knew what it was before I lifted up his shirt to look at his undershirt--blood. I saw right away that he had a nice sized hole in his IV line that was leaking blood and medicine. I think I said, "OK--we have a serious problem here--we've got to get to the hospital!!!" I stopped the pump and clamped his line above the hole and called Jason to let him know we were on our way to Brenner Children's Hospital.

As we've mentioned in other posts, Parker receives a medication called Remodulin via a permanent IV line (a broviac catheter permanently stitched into his chest) 24 hours a day. This medicine should never be stopped or interrupted because it could potentially have very serious or even fatal consequences. So, having a hole in the line that administers the medicine is an emergency. We had to get to the hospital fast and have them start a peripheral IV on Parker so we could restart the Remodulin. We arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes after I discovered the hole and a peripheral IV was placed shortly after that in Parker's arm (with only 2 sticks this time!). The next step was to figure out whether to repair his broken line or replace it with a new line. Unfortunately, a few hours passed before much progress was made and by that time the blood in that line had clotted making the line unusable. So, the decision was made to have Parker undergo surgery for a new line the next day.

After more than 4 hours in the ER, Parker was finally admitted and we headed upstairs to our room for the night to get some rest. During this whole time Parker was not allowed to eat or drink because of the possibility of having to do surgery--he was so hungry and thirsty. After the decision was made to do surgery the next day, they did allow him clear fluids until midnight so he had a popsicle and some apple juice before going to sleep. He slept pretty well in spite of all the interruptions throughout the night. Mom, on the other hand, couldn't say the same about her night...

On Thursday we spent the morning waiting to hear when Parker would be sent down to have the new line placed. Parker watched TV, visited the playroom and even worked on his kindergarten homework. (The night before when we were waiting in the ER he had been very disappointed that he couldn't do his homework, so we made sure Dad brought it to the hospital on Thursday so he could work on it. He LOVES school!) Finally, we headed down for the surgery around 12:30pm. Parker was so brave as we waited in the holding room that he has become all too familiar with (we were just there in May!). After all the talking was done and all the papers were signed, they gave Parker the "sleepy" medicine (Versed) that turns him onto a giggle box :) He giggled and giggled about everything. Then it was time for the surgery. About and hour and a half later, they finished the procedure. Everything went well and he tolerated it just fine. After another half hour in the recovery room and an x-ray to make sure his line was in the right place, they allowed me to come back and hook up his Remodulin pump to his new line.

We stayed at the hospital for a few more hours to make sure the line was working properly and to make sure Parker didn't have any complications from the surgery. He seemed to recover fairly quickly from the anesthesia this time, but remained very croupy from the intubation tube. It scared him a little bit when he realized he couldn't talk very well. I finally told him he didn't have to talk, he could just nod, and that seemed to help him not be so sad about his voice. After a while, he was ready to eat! He ordered cheese pizza and chocolate pudding from room service. He said it was "Yummy!". He was discharged shortly after that and we made it back home by 7:30 last night, just in time to go to bed.

He is still recovering today--feeling tired, groggy and a little croupy--but he's doing just fine. Although we don't like these kind of experiences, we're grateful that everything went reasonably well. We're hoping that it's at least another 2 years before this happens again!!! Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts throughout the last few days--we felt them all. We're so grateful for our loving Heavenly Father who constantly gives each of us the strength we need to make it through these stressful and scary times and for our sweet Parker who is undoubtably the bravest boy we know!