A Central Line & Brianna is Great!

Late yesterday afternoon, Brianna had her deep vein central line placed in her chest. This is a tube that is tunneled under the skin near the collar bone with one end of the IV tube placed in a vein almost to the heart and the other coming out of the body several inches above the breast. She was very nervous about it.

(PHOTO: No, this is not her after the procedure! On the Saturday before, Brianna shows off her new haircut in front of the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. She has my decaf coffee and a container of Stanford's delectible fries. She loves them!)

As we waited for her to be called into pre-op, Carol (an educational nurse from the pharmacy) came and taught us everything we needed to know about flushing the line with Heparin and changing the dressing. I have to admit, we were both a bit squeamish about it. Poor Brianna looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Her eyes were so big! But she and I were able to practice on a mannequin chest and that helped a lot. The most important part is hand washing and swabbing everything down with alcohol so it's clean, clean, clean!

They called her into surgery and tried to start an IV in her right forearm. Her arms have been protesting for the past several weeks adn this was no different. They couldn't get it in. I always hold Brianna's hand when she gets an IV inserted. But we both said, "Okay, enough. It's not going to happen there, try the veins in her hand!" Finally they listened.

It was obvious that she needed this central line!! No more needle sticks and digging to find the vein!

Brianna was grossed out by the idea, and soon after coming out of surgery. She was still groggy and was pouting, "Yuck, I have a central line!" But seveal hours later, she was glad it's there! The pain is minimal now and will be gone after several days. And she didn't feel any pain from the bone marrow aspiration. She'll start getting these once a month while she's in the hospital during the transplant.

Oh, and I have to gloat. One of the nurses in the surgery recovery room came up to me and said that she and some other nurses noticed how beautiful Brianna is. "She looks like a high fashion model! Her hair cut and eyes..she's just gorgeous." When I told Brianna, she smiled and said, "And mom you didn't like my hair." We laughed.

So, now were on our way to the big day when she gets new marrow! Monday begins the journey!