Wednesday, 28 January 2009

We're now the proud owners of a Wii.

Sarah was discharged today. I decided to scrap trying to go to work, as I'd just have to leave at some point to pick her up. The hospital had to ensure that the nurse from Critical Care Systems was able to come to our home before they could discharge her, so that the IV antibiotics could be continued.

We left the hospital at about 11:30am, and he got to our place just after 1pm.

He whizzed through the whole process, as she was due for more antibiotics at midday and he wanted to get the IV started. She's on a four hourly course. Fortunately, that doesn't mean we have to change the IV every four hours.

The way it works is the bag has enough antibiotics in a (presumably saline) solution to last six infusions on a four hourly frequency, and it's hooked up to a pump (that'll cost us $5000 if we don't give it back at the end), which takes care of everything.

So once a day at around noon, Sarah has to disconnect the old bag, flush the line with saline, do something with some Heparin to prevent clots in the line, and hook up a new bag. The bag and the pump fit into a carry bag that can be worn like a bum bag or slung from her shoulder and looped through a belt. It'll be her permanent companion for the next (hopefully only) two weeks.

The PICC has two ports (and I don't think that's the correct term) on it, and the IV is only hooked up to one, so the other one should be flushed and "Heparinised" regularly as well. The nurse comes back in a week with more supplies and to do some maintenance on site where the PICC line enters her arm.

Critical Care Systems seems pretty impressive. They provide all the gear, fill the prescription, and bring it all out to you (by a nurse). They provide a 24 hour hotline to call if there's any problems, questions or concerns, and can dispatch somebody to us if necessary. We've got syringes preloaded with saline and Heparinised saline, more alcohol swabs than you can poke a stick at, and the fridge is full of IV bags.

It's awesome that medical technology has progressed to this point, where Sarah can go about her business almost as normal, instead of being stuck in a hospital for another two weeks just because she has to have a tube in her arm.

To prove this, the little trooper was back at her CNA course this evening, and starts clinical training tomorrow night.