I don't know about you, but I hate blood.
Having 3 kids, I've seen my fair share of cuts and scrapes. But truly seeing your own blood.... ugh.
I just wanted to take a shower... I couldn't take a shower with my IV backpack, so I had to unhook from the IV. But I twisted off the wrong part of the catheter on accident, and suddenly there was blood. It was extremely nauseating.
Thankfully my husband works in the medical field and able to clean my line and help me hook back up. But I was getting sick while he was helping me clean it up. So embarrassing.
My nurse was due later that day, she added an extender piece, which the hospital had not added, which is why I was able to twist off the wrong piece. The extender would be easier for me to unhook for showers, but made to IV's line really long. I found myself getting it caught on things, tripping over it. It wasn't until a few days later that I learned how to shorten it.
Another issue was priming the bag/tubes. The pump itself could prime it, but you had to hold the button on the machine for 15 minutes... then my nurse learned a trick - put it up and prime it manually. HOWEVER... the bag is heavy, and to hook it on to the temporary IV stand was hard to do alone. And the stand was very wobbly.
If anyone knows an easier way to prime the line, let me know!
No comments:
Post a Comment