Kintropy In Action

For those following the latest Hannah hosptial saga, we have good news:  The Stomach Gurgles.  No, this is not a new soap opera about a wealthy restauranter and his family (though that might work); Hannah's stomach has awoken and is grumbling with hunger.

This is a good thing.  With abdominal surgery & the hold on food in favor of IV fluids, Hannah's stomach goes into hiberation.  This particular round, it went to sleep on Tuesday, got poked with food Thursday and Friday, mumbled "I don't want to get up", pulled the sheets back over its head, and went back to sleep.

Well, in Hannah-land, this creates problems.  She is a difficult stick when it comes to IVs.  Her veins are small and happy to play hide n' seek.  Any successful IV has a lifespan of 1 1/2 days with Hannah at most.  If she requires the IV longer, but gets dehydrated between IV placements, she graduates to a PICC line.  When that fails or cannot be achieved, she moves to a central line.

And that pretty much brings us up to last night:  the installation of a central line.  For the uninitiated, this is the ultimate IV with some pretty direct access to the blood flow:  a bigger, major vein.  The line must be implanted surgically, and it carries the additional risks that surgeries & tapping a major vein entail.

Hannah did well during this unplanned procedure (plus Dad got to pratice his ventilator circuit assembly/disassembly skills because he wasn't really in the mood to play the call-the-RT-and-wait game).  By last night, though, the central line placement site was looking puffy.  By morning, 1/2 of the needle ports had failed.

So, given the IV complications to date, I was particularly excited to hear Hannah's morning nurse  declare that Hannah's tummy was growling this morning.  Hannah had tolerated really slow, small feeds since 4am, and our plan was to increase volume and rate throughout the day, provided she continued to handle it well.

I checked in tonight, and Hannah is up to 70ml/hour.  Her stomach, it appears, has agreed to wake up & pitch in.  Hannah sat up to watch Jeopardy with Mom, and she appears to be maintaining the food well.  All in all, we hope to head home from the hosptial soon.

-- Dad