"uh oh"

This is exactly what Max said when the nurse walked into our ER room this evening. Yes, you heard that correctly. We spent the evening at the CCHMC ER. Let's rewind a bit...

Tim was playing in a softball tournament all day today, so Max and I went to see him play for a few hours. I then brought Max back home for his afternoon nap and I started to clean up around the house. I heard Max waking up from his nap around 5:00pm. I went to get him a few minutes later. I disconnected his feeding tube and was about to get him out of bed when I realized something was bunched up under his shirt. I immediately thought that it was the gauze that we put around his gtube to keep it from leaking since that was off and had to be replaced. NOPE.... it was his hemo catheter... dressing and all. I frantically started searching to see if it was completely out, which it was not. At this point I am in total and complete panic mode. I started getting things to redress it but quickly realized that it takes three people in the dialysis unit to do this and I was alone. My mind was racing for an idea on how to get this usually sterile area that was now exposed redressed. The only thing that I could think of doing was to put a bandage over it and call the nephrology fellow on call. I called Tim first so that he could start heading home since I knew we were headed to the ER. I then called the main hospital number to get the fellow on call paged. 15 minutes later I was still on hold and on page number two. The experience we have had with the fellow that was on has always been very good, so it was unlike her to not answer her pager. When they paged her for the third time I immediately thought that they must have had the wrong number. Anyway, we ended up talking to the attending and she told us to head to the ER.

So I packed Max's bag just in case they decided to keep him and we headed over. Miraculously we got taken back right away. There we waited for 15 minutes to have Max weighed and then got put into a room and met with another nurse. And then another nurse. And then a PCA. All asked the same questions. 30 minutes later a resident came in and for the fifth time we went over what happened and why were were there and what Max's history is and what surgeries has Max had and what/if any meds Max is on. YADDA YADDA YADDA!!! I should note that at this point I have told everyone of these people that NEPHROLOGY AND SURGERY NEEDED TO BE PAGED!!! About 30 minutes later the same resident came in and said that she needed to look at Max's catheter to see what kind he had. So she walks over to him, pulls his shirt up and starts trying to take the Tegaderm dressing off that I put on to secure it so that it wouldn't fall out. I didn't really realize what she was doing at first, but when I did I asked her why she was taking his dressing off. I went on to say (in a not so friendly way) that his site was suppose to be sterile and that if she took it off it would get pulled out. Tim jumped in and said, "Max is strictly under nephrology care and we would like for them to be paged before anyone touches this catheter." Then... are you ready for this... SHE FREAKING ROLLED HER EYES AT US!!!! OH MY GOSH I about jumped her shit (sorry for the french).
I yelled..."DO NOT ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME. I have asked 5 people to page nephrology... has it been done yet?"
Resident: "Well no I was going to go do it now."
Me: Well then I would suggest you do that so that we can figure out what they want to do with this before you go taking the dressing off."
Resident: "Okay I was just trying to help."
Me: "Well I understand that, but I would really like for his primary doctors to be contacted first."

Are you ready for this... SHE FREAKING ROLLED HER EYES AT ME AGAIN!!!! I about jumped her shit again!!! (sorry for the french, again) I was so freaking fired up at this point I was almost in tears.

So she left and must have paged the attending because the attending then came in to talk to us. I was still ticked off at this point so I started going off on her telling her that nephrology and surgery needed to be paged now so that we could figure out what we needed to do about this catheter that is falling out. I then felt so guilty, because she said in the sweetest voice that everyone had been paged and that they were waiting to hear back. Talk about feeling awful. Anyway, they got everything figured out and the surgery resident came in to let us know that he was there and that he was going to be taking care of Max. When he walked out I immediately thought, "Oh great. Another resident." Anyway, surgery came back in and said that the nephrology attending said to pull it. I should also note that the surgery resident ended up being fantastic. He was very sweet to Max and kept him entertained for the 15 minutes that he had to hold pressure on the site. Max was loving it.

Within minutes our security blanket was pulled and thrown in the garbage. It was a very bittersweet moment to see that thing thrown away. I love it because it's one less thing that could cause infection. I hate it because it was our security blanket. If Max had a bad PD (peritoneal dialysis) night we could always fall back on hemo. I hate it because for the past 16 months I have gone to that hospital 7 days a week, to 4 days a week, to three, and then two. Now... I don't at all except for his monthly visits. Granted, I am sure they will want to see him once a week for a little while just to be sure he is tolerating only being on PD rather than both, but still. What am I suppose to do with all of my time? I wasn't expecting this, so we didn't get to celebrate our last hemo treatment. We didn't get to say "goodbye" to our nurses. I have been wanting that thing out for so long, but now that it's out I am kind of sad. I am scared of this new chapter.

Please pray that Max doesn't get any kind of infection from the catheter being exposed and pulled out. Right now, that is my biggest concern. Needless to say, I have already taken his temperature twice and we've only been home for an hour and a half.

***Sorry I just reread that and it is all over the place***

On a positive note... Max is down to only having 2 tubes rather than 3. So yah for that!

Hoping for a quiet Sunday. Enjoy the beautiful weekend everyone!