Being at UCSF has been great... The doctors and nurses are awesome and I really enjoy being part of this learning facility. Part of experience of being here is having doctors and nurses, that are in different stages of training out of school, "practice" on me.
One of the newer nurses, Matt, has not been so successful with me. He continues to be one of my favorites and I actually feel bad for him. He has had to witness my more emotional moments. When I was first in, he tried to draw blood and it would not work. He was then successful in getting an IV in :). However, when it came time to do more blood work, my mom had forgotten the IV part and "fired" him. After being reminded of the success, he was able to draw blood. This week when I came in, I need to have my ports (an IV under my skin) accessed so that fluids could begin. This is usually a very easy procedure done in 5min. Of course, not mine. Matt tried, no success, 1 1/2 hours later and 3 add'l nurses, tears, pain and "being done" they had accessed only 1 of the 2 ports.
Today I was due for a spinal tap, so the thought was I would be heavily sedated (not completely under) and they could then do my spinal tap, which has always gone well the other 6 times, and access my 2nd port. Spinal tap - Success!! Port access - not so much!! aaaarrrrggg!! The spinal tap was done by a newer doctor obviously learning. Not to worry, there were 3 other doctors there, one of which was the "teacher". It went very well and I didn't feel it at all. As for the port, the staff now thinks it may be clogged, even though it worked perfectly less than 2 weeks ago. Next steps, they will put dye into it and do some xrays to find out whats going on.
Update on the port - after some medicine/fluid to "dissolve" any tiny clots, they got my port to work earlier this afternoon. YEAH!! no dye test tomorrow.
2 comments:
Kaitlin dear,
Papa & I think you are so brave and also very beautiful. We are very proud of how you are handling your treatment. We only want you to be completely well again.
Lots of love,
Nana & Papa
Kaitlin you are such an amazing young woman! I know we didn't get to talk much the day before my sister's baby shower but you sure made an impression on my daughters! They pray for you often (in their own words they prayer for you to have strength to fight the bad cells and that you will do what the doctors tell you to do). I wish they could come to visit you but I know how that goes :) Instead I just wanted you to know that we think of you often and that you are in our prayers.
Sincerely,
Joelle, Bruno, Emily, Brianna & Matthew Machado
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