08 July 2011

Things are Looking Up

Yesterday, I had the line placed that will be delivering my parenteral nutrition, which is called a Hickman line. It's a type of IV that has a tube which goes directly to the heart, and the other end comes outside the middle of my chest. I had the line placed under local anaesthetic, meaning I was just numbed in the appropriate places and fully conscious for the entire procedure. There were points during the procedure where I kind of wish I opted for the general anaesthetic, namely the bit where the guy placing the line said something about a knife and the next thing I knew he was going for my neck. Luckily, I didn't feel any pain during the procedure, so it wasn't a big deal, but it's a bit concerning when someone is cutting you with a knife in the neck and chest!

The procedure went fine, and I now have a suture in my neck from where they guided the line to the appropriate places, and of course the bit that actually comes out so that I can be hooked up to an IV. It's all a bit sore today, but I've been given a prescription for IV paracetamol which was been pretty good for the pain, and I'm hoping as the small incisions heal, the pain will go away.

I'll be starting the TPN itself this evening. Hopefully this will get me well on the way to finally gaining some weight back, and helping me feel a bit better. I no longer have to drink as many of the Modulen drinks, just one or two a day to keep my digestive system active, but that's it. Once I start gaining weight back, I will have a better idea when we can get onto the next step of surgery to finally fix the strictures have been causing me all these problems over the past few years.

Finally, it feels like we're making some progress.

1 comment:

  1. Carrie - this is Eric from Cisco. Abra just told me about what's happening and I'm sorry I had no idea!

    It sounds like you're in the middle of a very bad month, but glad to hear that you are on an upward trajectory.

    We're thinking of you and I will keep checking on this to see how you are doing. Hang in there!

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