Catheter Out

After three unpleasant nights of having the catheter in Ciara's belly, it was removed today. Regardless of what it was designed to do, the thing did start leaking last night. The yellow, odourless liquid, soaked a few pairs of leggings and pyjamas just from walking around to Ronald McDonald House. Overnight a gause was applied to try and soak up any leaks. Today Ciara was given a seditive, which as usual didn't make her go to sleep, it just made her a bit drunk. At least this time she wasn't aggressive. The doctor snipped the stiches holding the catheter in place and pulled out the 12 inch tube. As a doctor-nurse-parent team, we then spent the rest of the day trying to stop fluid pouring out of the wound. If too much fluid is lost, even if it's useless fluid, the body will try and compensate by drawing good stuff from the blood system. A drop in blood pressure would cause serious kidney complications. So what would seem to be the obvious thing to do, being draining the fluid while the tap is in, is in fact a terrible idea.

Removing the catheter while so much pressure existed was a bit of a new thing so the doctor was trying different dressings to try stem the flow. We didn't want to wrap her up in a strong adhesive dressing as removing it would be very painful for Ciara. This attention to what could be seen as a minor detail impressed me greatly. For a few hours, we took turns holding a gause tightly against the wound. This stemmed the flow completely so we could see that pressure was more important than a water-tight seal. She now has a pad tightly secured with a bandage. Any fluid loss today was compensated by a drip and her levels and blood pressure are fine.

Throughout all this, Ciara was very co-operative, and a credit to herself. Even when lying on a bed soaked with fluid, with people fulling at dressings and pressing at wounds, she was helpful, kind of calm, and sometimes even courtious. She's asleep now but was in excellent for this evening; glad to be rid of that horrible catheter.