Home IVs, Infected Lungs and Hernias

2020 has already had an interesting start. My chest has been really unpleasant as of late due to a really bad chest infection, probably a flare up of the deep-rooted one that colonised in my lungs about 4-5 years ago. Not exactly sure how long it's been brewing. Only that it never seems to go away completely or stay gone for too long. My asthma becomes more wild with infections as well so it's so important to get them under control sooner than later. So we decided to up the ante a bit and go for 2 weeks of Tazocin (piperacillin and tazebactam, 3 times a day via intravenous injection) home IV.

Home IVs are tricky. Depending on your preference, the district nurses can come and give you your injections or infusions as needed, or you can be taught to self administer. I personally prefer to self administer as I know how busy the nurses are and have always believed that if possible, one should manage their own care as long as it's safe to do so. Obviously the only thing they can't teach is how to insert an IV cannula yourself, that requires someone who is trained at venipuncture. Cannulation is the trickiest thing with me, my veins run for it as soon as the word "needle" is said and when they do get access, they don't like to keep it up for long and they collapse. So this makes it a bit more difficult. But still beats being in hospital.

On Tuesday last week, 3 attempts and a blown vein later, we got access but it lasted about a day before collapsing again, which meant a bit of the dose actually went in to the tissue of my arm, that was rather unpleasant. My arm bulged up like a balloon! Yes, that hurts as much as it sounds like it would, my left arm is bruised, very bruised. So Thursday morning we had to try again. This time we got one after 5 attempts and frustration for both me and the nurse. So we had a big decision to make. Go in to hospital and let them treat me OR go to Bromsgrove hospital on Friday and get a midline put in. We decided on the midline.

It was a first time for me to get one of these inserted. Basically a midline is a bigger, longer cannula that goes in to the upper arm where the veins are chunky and more reliable. For scale a normal IV cannula is about 2-3cm long, this thing is about 10cm long. To have one put in, you need to be in a clinical treatment room, complete aseptic environment. They use ultrasound to find the vein and they use strict sterile protocol (surgical prep, gloves, drape etc). The skin is numbed thankfully so it's not exactly painful, just uncomfortable and a bit weird. To be honest, I'm glad I went through with it, despite being a bit scared (yes it does happen and I do get scared when we have a new challenge to face) and needing a small Sephy plushie to squish (I took the mini one). It took 3 goes but when we were in, we were in and it's been so much better. I think this will be added to my protocol for home IVs now. 

I'm about halfway through the course now and it has helped me so much. I'm shifting the rubbish that's sat on my chest for a while and I'm a lot perkier. I know that I don't stay infection free for too long but I'm hopeful that this time it'll be a couple of months and we can get me as well as possible for my hernia operation. Speaking of, my hernia (called Fred-Bob-Jim) is still there like some kind of demented eyeball poking out of my belly button. It's so weird. It hurts too. So I'll be very happy when that gets a shove back inside my tummy where it belongs. 

Til all are one

Wendy xx