Monday, August 8, 2011

Infected Hickman Next steps


Monday, August 8, 2011

Well a discovery has been made about why my blood levels are so low and why I’m having such a hard time recovering; it’s my brother’s fault. Oh, okay it’s not his fault, but it’s force of habit to blame him when something bad happens to me; it worked when we were kids.

OH never mind!

Anyway here is what is likely happening. This is a Hickman catheter. Something similar was surgically connected to my superior vena cava so drugs and chemo can infused and blood taken out.  The three lines are called lumens.



The hematology people took blood cultures and are reviewing the results, but first looks suggest that one of the lines is infected. Infected with what, or how? Who knows? The infection has likely caused my white blood cells (WBC) to go to battle before they were mature enough. And that is what may be keeping my WBC down, which may be what got me in the hospital in the first place.

So here’s the plan of action.  

Starting yesterday I’m being bombarded with heavy doses of antibiotics.
Another set of cultures is being prepared and analyzed
If the antibiotics clear me out and make the infection in one the lumens go away – yippee!!
If not I’ll have to go under the knife and have the old one ripped out and a new on installed. A major pain in the neck.

The good news is we have a plan; the bad news is it’ll take some time. 

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