Because Mom's intestines need to heal, the docs don't want her to eat any solid foods. She's on a liquid diet. She's receiving nutrition intravenously through a line that goes from her arm to her heart. Everything she needs is in it. We have to hook her up every night, and it runs for about 12 hours. The bag is actually called TPN, total parenteral nutrition. The TPN is delivered with an infusion pump. Thank goodness it's not as big as the machines at the hospital. This is a little machine that fits in a backpack type bag with the TPN, and it's not difficult for Mom to carry.
A great nurse came the first night to show us how to do it, and the second night a different nurse showed up who relied more on us than we on her on the usage of the line.
So every night we take out the TPN from the fridge around 6:30 or 7 PM. An our or so later, we put the gloves on, inject some vitamins into the bag, flush the lines, clean this, clean that. purge this, and then finally connect the line. The line is just above her inner elbow on the left arm. Because it's something that goes directly into her blood, and because there's like an actual hole where the line goes in and stitches holding it in place, everything has to be clean, clean, clean.
They also certified me at the hospital on how to change the dressing. That part they're more paranoid about because the line and the area where it goes in is actually exposed. Everything has to be not just clean then, but it must be sterile. There's this whole process with that too. Stink! I should have gone to nursing school. At least I've done it a couple of times now (the dressing change), and I'm not so paranoid about that one now. The dressing can't get wet, dirty or anything like that. So when it's time for a shower, we have to cover it completely. At the hospital they used plastic wrap and taped it really well. A nurse in a dressing change class mentioned that one of her patients used the Glad Press & Seal. I don't know how it works on plates, but it sure works on skin and on itself. We use a few of those and then tape just to make sure nothing leaks in, and so far that's been great.
What else with the PICC line? ...Oh, Mom does have to make frequent (hourly) trips to the bathrom at night, so rest at night isn't the best. She is able to go right back to sleep, so that's awesome. Usually I'm the only one that has sleep issues after waking up. I'm not sure why, but I try to fit in a nap during the day to make up for it.
There can be complications with the TPN and the PICC line so please pray that we have none of these. So far so good, and we want to keep it that way.
Pictures tomorrow...
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