Surgery on Wednesday

Last night we had quite the ordeal. Katelyn's hickman broke. Her hickman is the set of tubes that is in her chest. The lines are how she accessed for everything from blood draws to chemo. We have been fortunate that we have done so well with it until now. After Katelyn starts to recover from her chemo and her counts start to come up, her platelets always come up quickly. Once they get to about 250 her line gets sluggish. Todd & I as well as our regular nurses are aware of this and take special precautions to avoid it clotting. If she runs out of fluids she will clot off in 5 minutes, if she is running at less than 20mL she will clot. Todd and I stay pretty on top of it and make sure neither of those two things happen. Sometimes it will still happen and we have to TPA the line. That means that they put a drug in the line that is strong and will break up whatever is clotting and comprimising the line. Last night her small lumen wouldn't flush, so they switched lumens and the large one wouldn't flush. Todd used a flush and was very gently tapping on it to try and break it up a bit, the nurse we had took over and rather thank tapping on it, she gave it a push... and the line broke. Once the line breaks, it is exposed to everything, air and bacteria. The nurse didn't clamp it immediately and although we think the clot would have kept any bacteria from actually entering her system, it is still a major infection risk. They tried to repair it but were unable to adequately set the glue. As of today the line is leaking and unable to flush. There are a few options as far as caring for the line. One would be to attempt another repair. Our concern is that even if the repair is successful, the line is still comprimised and not at 100% strength. We have this clotting difficulty after every chemo, and with at least 2 more, we don't believe the line is strong enough to withstand her platelets and constant access. If it isn't stron enough then they will have to repair it multiple times. That means it will be accessed a lot, and the risk of infection is too high for us to be comfortable. The other option is to have the hickman surgically replaced. Todd and I believe that this is the best option. The line will be new and not comprimised. The scary part is putting Kate under and all the possible side effects. Everything went well with her first hickman, and the doctor who would be putting the new one in also did the first one. Todd and I are more comfortable with this option and have scheduled her surgery for Wednesday.

Another downside to doing the repair is that we would be paranoid about it all the time. We wouldn't want to leave Kate with any sort of sitter for any period of time because of the high possibility that the line be comprimised even more. With baby number two coming, we need Kate and ourselves to have a bit more freedom to have help.

I am very thankful that we got our place right down the road. Miraculously I woke up to my phone vibrating on the dresser at 2:58am and was at the hospital by 3:06am. This is exactly the reason we want to be close to the hospital during this time. Anything can happen, at any time, and both Todd and I feel much more comfortable being easily accessible. If I had been in Ramona, I wouldn't have been here to help make decisions or comfort my child while her health is being jeopordized. I am VERY thankful to be right down the road.

Please pray for Katelyn. Please pray that she stay infection and fever free and that her line stay clear while we wait until Wednesday. Alsp pray that her surgery go well, with no complications.

Thank You for your support!

Love,
Krystal