Jeff's Journal

Misc

Today was fairly uneventful. The docs showed up and ordered some more blood work. I must admit, I appreciate taking blood with the catheter. There is not a stick, just a draw. I get a little nervous when I see how fast the vials fill up. It is like a fast fill spigot. I don’t care much for watching blood and it usually causes me to faint. (I think I am overcoming that one.) Watching this has brought out some paranoia. It’s triggered as I think how fast I would be drained if one of these lines were to ever get cut or the cap were to come off.

I told the nurse about my little paranoid thought. I was looking for some reassurance from her that I should not worry about it. All she did was confirm my concern with a story about how someone almost bled to death in their sleep because their line got a nick in it. I had not thought about the “while asleep” part until she told the story. She showed me how to clamp the line, just in case.

Her story begat other ill-fated catheter stories from the rest of the medical personnel in the room. I heard about catheters that fell out while patients were sleeping. I heard about how one of the doctors yanked one out while a patient was sitting in the dialysis chair. They are very quick to tell stories about infections with these things. Once you get an infection, you’re in the hospital for a while. So far, two of the catheter patients on my shift have been sent to the hospital in my short tenure in the clinic because of infection. Both were in the hospital for over a week for high powered antibiotics. I was reassured alright, reassured to be very cautious.

I wrote earlier, the catheter makes my experience a more pleasant experience. The patients with fistulas and grafts get stuck. For me, right now, it is a couple of twists, turns, a double saline test, a shot of heparin and I’m ready to go.

It is usually after a tale of infection that the medical folks look at me and ask when I am going to get a fistula. And I repeat for them, if we get to the end of the donors with no transplant, I’ll make plans for a more permanent access. Until then, I’ll be satisfied with my no stick catheter access.

posted by Jeff Waldo @ 10:37 PM