My plan of attack is working.
Putting that little extra touch on getting ready in the morning is helping to boost my 'self esteem' and starts my morning off with a smile.
Yesterday I made the call to my dietitian. Told her that I was interested in cutting back to 5 days a week on my TPN, so I could move towards getting disconnected all together and eventually having my picc line removed. She asked me what I thought about 4 days a week and I was ecstatic. But I was trying not to get my hopes up because I knew she didn't have the authority to make the decision, that it had to be cleared by my doctor.
So I met with Vanessa this morning - the home nurse that has been seeing me for a while. She changed my bandaging - there was a good amount of blood this time. It was weird because I had noticed that there was fresh blood pooling under the bandaging this morning. When she took off the bandaging it was a little more obvious what was going on - and also helped to explain the pain I was having in my arm on Sunday.
Your body naturally wants to close up a 'wound'. My body for the past two months has been trying to heal over the tubing that is being used for the picc line. Last week when Vanessa changed my bandaging I noticed that the skin had grown and extended up the tubing (which honestly I was grossed out by and was praying that I wouldn't be left with a nasty lumpy scar). Well, this morning we found out that the blood supply had stopped to that extra skin and it was separating from my arm. I know gross. So Vanessa cleaned everything up and now I am just dealing with my arm being sore from all of the clean up.
Then as I was heading out of the office for the day, I received a voice mail from my dietitian. She was calling me back about the doctor's decision. To say I was nervous would be a tad understated. But ultimately as I listened to the message, a huge smile came across my face. The doctor had decided that he would cut me down to 3 days a week. The dietitian and pharmacist then decided that those 3 days would include lipids in each of the bags - in the event I can't get the proper nutrition during the other 4 days each week.
3 days! That is 4 days of freedom. 4 days to feel somewhat normal.
I CAN'T WAIT!!!
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