My daughter's finger saga morphed quickly into a melodrama. On Friday, after the doctor rechecked her finger and I asked for outpatient IV therapy, she went to the brand new Children's Hospital and had her PICC line placed. This is not a quick procedure and since she has inherited my puny veins the first line was not successful but as luck would have it she has two arms.
We left the hospital at 6pm and the home health care nurse came to our house four hours later. It was then that I learned she would not be coming to our house every eight hours because she was going to teach us to run the IV of Vancomycin. Fun!
Anna got comfortable and our puppy kept her company for the two hour drip. This routine was short lived because on Sunday her finger was worse. We called her pediatrician who told us to go to the emergency room.
The redness had started to streak past her first knuckle and the black was getting larger. In addition to her finger, her PICC line was causing a red streak up her arm and really hurt Anna if you touched her upper arm. Based mostly on the fact that her PICC line was thought to be infected she was admitted.
We spent Sunday through Friday in the hospital. Her finger continued to get worse even with the increased dosage of Vancomycin and an additional broad spectrum antibiotic, Rosefrin. We left the hospital not knowing what she really has or how she got it.
She had an MRI on Tuesday that showed no infection in the bone, thank God. I had never had nor seen an MRI machine up close; those things are loud.
Her IVs were not stable because she has something called mechanical phlebitis and therefore she was stuck with needles more than her psyche could handle. She was beginning to freak out when they had to draw blood and when she saw them come in to flush her IV before and after the every three hour Vancomycin treatment she would start screaming and crying. It was horrible. At one point my mother and I had to hold her down and she screamed so much she threw up, which made me about throw up.
When they realized her second IV was going bad they scheduled her to be sedated so she could have another PICC line inserted. I pulled the mom card and begged for a central line instead. They decided that a central line would be best due to her weak veins and while they were under they cut out the necrotic part of her finger.
There was much drama with the lack of bedside manner with the hand surgeon who made it seem like keeping her finger might be in jeopardy. But after taking out the black part on Wednesday her finger started to improve. They cultured it and it came back positive for staph. They do not know at this time what strain of staph but her treatment is 600mg of Vancomycin every 12 hours for 2-4 weeks.
Right now we are on a 4 to 4 dosage but we will be moving that at half hour increments until we get to 6am and 6pm. Her finger already looks better, gross but better.
Janelle, your experience is so similar and thank you so much for your comments. And OHN, it really is amazing how prevelant MRSA is and how scary and dangerous too. Our family had so much suppport through this ordeal. We recently became official members at our church and my husband and I have said over and over again how wonderful our small group is. Each person came up to see Anna and the ones with kids brought their children so Anna could play X-Box with them.
My husband's ex-wife was great! She brought the kids every night and let them all play and walk around the hospital floor with Anna. My mother came every day and even spent the night with me. But the real trooper has been my husband. He came every morning with coffee for me and hot chocolate for Anna. He was there right after work and then even during work hours. He has been the one with the calm and reasoning voice, gently reminding me that the doctors never actually said she could go home Monday, then Tuesday, and especially Wednesday after the central line was placed. He was there and Anna and I both knew it.
It is now 8:20am Saturday morning and I have been up for four hours and home less than 24. Thank you so much for your prayers, support, phone calls, and comments. Remember, wash your hands!
We left the hospital at 6pm and the home health care nurse came to our house four hours later. It was then that I learned she would not be coming to our house every eight hours because she was going to teach us to run the IV of Vancomycin. Fun! 
Anna got comfortable and our puppy kept her company for the two hour drip. This routine was short lived because on Sunday her finger was worse. We called her pediatrician who told us to go to the emergency room.
The redness had started to streak past her first knuckle and the black was getting larger. In addition to her finger, her PICC line was causing a red streak up her arm and really hurt Anna if you touched her upper arm. Based mostly on the fact that her PICC line was thought to be infected she was admitted. We spent Sunday through Friday in the hospital. Her finger continued to get worse even with the increased dosage of Vancomycin and an additional broad spectrum antibiotic, Rosefrin. We left the hospital not knowing what she really has or how she got it.
She had an MRI on Tuesday that showed no infection in the bone, thank God. I had never had nor seen an MRI machine up close; those things are loud.
Her IVs were not stable because she has something called mechanical phlebitis and therefore she was stuck with needles more than her psyche could handle. She was beginning to freak out when they had to draw blood and when she saw them come in to flush her IV before and after the every three hour Vancomycin treatment she would start screaming and crying. It was horrible. At one point my mother and I had to hold her down and she screamed so much she threw up, which made me about throw up.
When they realized her second IV was going bad they scheduled her to be sedated so she could have another PICC line inserted. I pulled the mom card and begged for a central line instead. They decided that a central line would be best due to her weak veins and while they were under they cut out the necrotic part of her finger.
There was much drama with the lack of bedside manner with the hand surgeon who made it seem like keeping her finger might be in jeopardy. But after taking out the black part on Wednesday her finger started to improve. They cultured it and it came back positive for staph. They do not know at this time what strain of staph but her treatment is 600mg of Vancomycin every 12 hours for 2-4 weeks.
Right now we are on a 4 to 4 dosage but we will be moving that at half hour increments until we get to 6am and 6pm. Her finger already looks better, gross but better.
Janelle, your experience is so similar and thank you so much for your comments. And OHN, it really is amazing how prevelant MRSA is and how scary and dangerous too. Our family had so much suppport through this ordeal. We recently became official members at our church and my husband and I have said over and over again how wonderful our small group is. Each person came up to see Anna and the ones with kids brought their children so Anna could play X-Box with them.
My husband's ex-wife was great! She brought the kids every night and let them all play and walk around the hospital floor with Anna. My mother came every day and even spent the night with me. But the real trooper has been my husband. He came every morning with coffee for me and hot chocolate for Anna. He was there right after work and then even during work hours. He has been the one with the calm and reasoning voice, gently reminding me that the doctors never actually said she could go home Monday, then Tuesday, and especially Wednesday after the central line was placed. He was there and Anna and I both knew it.
It is now 8:20am Saturday morning and I have been up for four hours and home less than 24. Thank you so much for your prayers, support, phone calls, and comments. Remember, wash your hands!
Oh, I KNEW when you had not posted a update it did not bode well. I totally know about loosing the time. Last year I felt like I lost a whole month with all the hospital stay. I'll be praying for her continued recovery. Jeana looked at the picture of her arm and said that looks scary! She was thinking of her own arm last year.
It is amazing how much time goes by while sitting doing nothing in the hospital and yet I was so tired but I did nothing. On the fourth day I didn't even want to read I just wanted to sit there in the dark after Anna went to bed. It was exhausting.
Looking directly at her PICC line made the back of my legs feel weak. Her new central line does the same thing but it is more covered up. The worst was her finger the day they cut all the necrotic tissue out, I couldn't even look at it.
Thank you for your prayers and it is nice to be able to tell Anna that another little girl had the same thing.
Kim