Equipment failure

Maggie awoke again this morning at 5:15am to a wet bed. After determining that she had not wet her bed, we found that her temporary IV was again leaking out. They checked the line and could not get any blood return. They checked her second line and were able to get a blood return so they switched her IV nutrients & morphine to the one that worked. Again, this made us sick as this is what happened to us on Friday after her surgery.

At 7:00am the IV therapist came in to check on the lines and sure enough, the saline was dripping out and onto her skin. The second line was working fine. They scheduled another dye study to determine where the leak is and surprisingly, they couldn't find anything wrong, on either line. We can't quite figure out what is happening--why it is leaking onto her skin yet not showing any problems on the x-ray. They are still not able to get a blood return on the one.

Our doctor came to talk with us about the situation. He has decided to delay another surgery. He is going to try to wean her off the morphine & take her off of the TPN (IV nutrition). He is only going to do the necessary antibiotics, hoping that the chemicals going through her might minimize any more problems to the line. Her ANC is coming up (finally) and his hope is that by the end of the week it might be high enough so that she might be able to go to surgery to get her permanent broviac placed on her right side (and performed by a different surgeon).