It Clotted!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The day started off like any other day. Niki was fever free and her appetite was starting to come back full force. She still had a touch of diarrhea from her antibiotics, but the good news was she wasn't  dehydrated at all.

Niki the morning of June 22nd

Later that morning, John and I took Niki to play to the playroom right before she was due to have her dose of Tobramycin. After a few minutes of walking around we noticed that her line had some backflow again. We called the nurse to flush the blood out with some saline and within less than five minutes it was clotted!!!

It's ironic how she has a bleeding disorder, but her line has no problem clotting.

The nurse looked a little frantic. She checked the IV pump to make sure it was pushing fluids at the correct rate and it was still at 10ml/H. She called three more nurses in to try and help unclog Niki's line, but no luck. At first the nurses tried to flush the through the tubing, but it didn't work so they ended up disconnecting the line completely. When they disconnected the tubing from her Broviac, Niki's blood was stringy. Odd. They then tried to flush Niki Broviac directly, but it was still backed up. Lastly, the nurses tried changing Niki's clave hoping that the clot was just isolated in clave, but the line still wouldn't flush. Yep, it was definitely clotted. The fact that Niki's Broviac clotted so quickly was amazing. The backflow wasn't there for more than 5 minutes!!!

Niki was enjoying being disconnected from the pump. (Talking to her brothers.)

The nurses called a PICC line nurse from a different floor so she could review Niki's x-ray. Apparently, Niki's Broviac placement shifted as she grew so it made it more prone to clotting. Especially since they were pushing fluids through the pump at a slightly slower rate. The rate (10ml/H) is perfect for her size, but it wasn't enough to prevent clotting. So, the PICC line nurse had the doctor order some tPA to dissolve the clot. And it worked! Niki got her antibiotic and her final blood culture shortly after the line was unclogged. And, the nurses decided to increase the fluid rate to 20ml/H just to be sure Niki's line stayed clot-free.

All was well with the world again...

Getting .5ml of tPA forced into the line...

Meanwhile, I was going through some serious "boy cub withdrawal". I missed my boys. I hadn't visited Ethan since Friday (before Niki got admitted) and the last time I saw Kev and Boo was on Father's Day. John would go home once a day to see the kids, but I really couldn't leave the hospital. Apparently, the boys kept asking about Niki and I so John picked them up so they could visit.

And all was well with the world again...

It felt so good to be with my cubs :)

Dr. Cool stopped by to let us know that Niki's 2nd blood culture from 6/21 didn't have any growth. No rods showed up at all. So, it looked like Niki was going to go home on Wednesday, June 23rd! The next day!!!!! Shortly after John and I got the good news, I noticed this on some of her admit paperwork.

Yep, the imprint appears to say "Annika De Lion". Looks like all was meant to be well for my brave little lioness from the start. :)