Hickman success
Thursday and Fridays procedure went well with putting a “Hickman catheter” into his chest vein. He now can have blood drawn and treatments administered through this port without getting poked again. This Hickman will remain in his chest until after the transplant is complete.
I did just learn that Dean won’t draw blood labs out of the catheter, which defeats the purpose of him having one, so we don’t have to keep picking him. Hopefully Home Health will do this blood draw for us, since they are coming twice a week anyways for the Hickman catheter care and to check for infection.
Rick and I have had to learn how to care for the Hickman and how to flush it on a daily basis and change the dressing every 3rd day. The whole environment must be sterile from the skin to the gloves we wear, AND we have to keep Hayden’s hands away from this whole area at the same time.
Pretty intimidating!
Hayden is doing pretty good with this tubing coiled around on his chest, it is under his onesie most of the time, so he doesn’t have a chance to pull at it. He does cry a bit when we change his dressing, since the sterile rubs must sting on his open area, where the tube comes out. That skin will grow around the tube and eventually the stitches will come out and the tubing will not have to be bandaged. It will be a long month though!
Hayden is at 88,000 for his platelet count as of this morning, so we will test him again on Wed. to see if we need to go back in UW day treatment for more platelets. I hope he stays up there in count, he really gets an upset stomach from the treatments, not to mention he is still teething which gives him soft stools.
As of right now, the kids and I are planning to be in GB Wed night until Friday of this week for my work so Grandma and Grandpa will be watching the kids during the day. But if Hayden’s count is very low, we might have to get a transfusion yet this week. Oh the stress of waiting!
We are in the final stages of Hayden’s NEW webpage, www.haydenblatter.org, we will have daily entries about Hayden’s progress, pictures and links to related information that will help you understand this disease.
A lot of people have asked about being a Bone Marrow Donor, his page will provide info of what we have been told by our doctors on how to get on the donors list. Hayden’s Dr’s are going through the National Bone Marrow and Blood Cord list for his preliminary search.