Time again for Austin's monthly blood draw and checkup with our Pediatrician. Usually no big deal. This time when the home health nurse came to draw Austin's blood, she couldn't get his port to draw back. She poked him twice, much to Austin's anguish. Poor kid just hates it. He consents to the first poke but the second one is more pain mixed with stress and fear as well. When the nurse still couldn't get the port to work we headed to Dr. Marsden's office for his checkup. That went well so we headed over to the Pediatric floor to figure out the problem with his port.
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| So thrilled to be here :( |
Our favorite nurse, Jason, poked the very bruised port site but once again no blood. So bring on the big guns. TPA or Activase is a drug used to dissolve blood clots in central lines. The idea is to inject the drug just into the port and let it break down the clot. So you put it in and wait...and in our case... wait...and wait.
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| Using the "freezy spray" to numb his skin before the poke |
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| Trying to get the port to work--no luck |
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| Wasting time waiting for the TPA to work |
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| Austin's favorite way to pass the time---grilled cheese, sweet potato, and cake--weird but yummy |
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| ahhhh....finally!!! So happy to see that blood! |
Finally after about 4 hours and multiple attempts, FINALLY we got blood. I can't tell you how relieved I was to see that precious red stuff. If it hadn't worked we would have been on our way to Salt Lake for surgery and a new port. Yuck. So grateful all was well in the end.
Austin's stats for this month---Weight 44.2 kg (same as last month), HCT 35.2, Platelets 238, and ANC 2100 (!) We knew his counts would go up since we had stopped his Chemo for 2 weeks when his feet were bad.
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