Trial by fire
Yesterday we went to the beach with the entire family as a "last outing" before Willy leaves. It was a stressful time, I think we're all just on edge and don't know how to react to this huge change in our family. We did go out and get some family pictures before that though, and although I'm not happy with the quality of the photo, I am happy that we are all IN IT!
On the other front....Willy set up another treatment yesterday, and I must say, I think I've got lots and lots more gray hair and scared to death! What's Murphy's law? Yeah, well, maybe not *everything* but some very scary things went wrong last night.
A 4.5 hour set up and treatment ended up taking 7.5 hours! Willy' saline line became contaminated, it was a stupid mistake but he was very calm, thought about his procedures and talked me through spiking a new bag and hooking it up. We could have waited, he doesn't need the saline until the treatment is over BUT of course he needed it to solve ANOTHER problem we were having with the pressure flow through the machine. And like that wasn't enough as we fixed the pressure flow we introduced air into the machine......HUGE problem.
We have been trained on how to remove air and I was doing just as I was taught, but man was that scary. That is the worst alarm that could go off on this machine. If air is introduced into his blood stream, he could die, very very fast. Willy held it together for me, talked me through it, remained calm. Not once did he freak out or raise his voice, I was secretly panicking.
I got the air out, reset the alarms and thank God that was the end of the drama. Except for Alex. While the other boys were TOTALLY oblivious to what was going on, Alex kept watching and was near, at arm's length the entire time. It seems he was the only one who knew how dangerous a situation we were in and he was extremely upset afterward. We talked, we cried, we hugged and we got through it. We stayed with our wits about us and we won! Yeah, so the treatment didn't end until 1:00am but the three of us woke up this morning with a feeling of victory, the others... just grumpy!
In case you're wondering, if the alarms would not have reset, we would have just stopped the treatment, he would have lost some blood but he would have been just fine.
On the other front....Willy set up another treatment yesterday, and I must say, I think I've got lots and lots more gray hair and scared to death! What's Murphy's law? Yeah, well, maybe not *everything* but some very scary things went wrong last night.
A 4.5 hour set up and treatment ended up taking 7.5 hours! Willy' saline line became contaminated, it was a stupid mistake but he was very calm, thought about his procedures and talked me through spiking a new bag and hooking it up. We could have waited, he doesn't need the saline until the treatment is over BUT of course he needed it to solve ANOTHER problem we were having with the pressure flow through the machine. And like that wasn't enough as we fixed the pressure flow we introduced air into the machine......HUGE problem.
We have been trained on how to remove air and I was doing just as I was taught, but man was that scary. That is the worst alarm that could go off on this machine. If air is introduced into his blood stream, he could die, very very fast. Willy held it together for me, talked me through it, remained calm. Not once did he freak out or raise his voice, I was secretly panicking.
I got the air out, reset the alarms and thank God that was the end of the drama. Except for Alex. While the other boys were TOTALLY oblivious to what was going on, Alex kept watching and was near, at arm's length the entire time. It seems he was the only one who knew how dangerous a situation we were in and he was extremely upset afterward. We talked, we cried, we hugged and we got through it. We stayed with our wits about us and we won! Yeah, so the treatment didn't end until 1:00am but the three of us woke up this morning with a feeling of victory, the others... just grumpy!
In case you're wondering, if the alarms would not have reset, we would have just stopped the treatment, he would have lost some blood but he would have been just fine.
posted by Rebecca at 1:19 PM
3 Comments:
I'm so glad everything turned out well. With all his experience now, I wonder if Alex will become a doctor or a nurse someday.
Please take Alex and hug him for me today. Don't have to explain why :)
I was thinking the same thing, I can see Alex becoming a doctor. Glad you were able to get it taken care of, it's the first week, it will get easier as time goes on.
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