Nurse Visit

Yesterday was my regularly scheduled nurse visit. My nurse Traci came to change the dressing on my PICC, do vitals and draw blood for labs. The good news is, she was very happy to see how well my rashes are healing. My left arm looks great with just a little redness where the site went in and two little white scars from where I was poked. My neck is even starting to look good and I can actually wear my hair up without feeling like an alien. :) Traci changed the dressing on my new PICC and it looks great too! No rash so far or anything out of the ordinary! Yay! She found out that there is latex in the netting that I was using to hold my line on the first PICC and we are wondering if I am allergic to latex which caused the rashes. Who knows?!

On to the not so great news. Oh yes there is always some of those it seems huh? Traci called me back yesterday afternoon with my lab results and they weren't great. My sodium went back down which is disappointing because last week it finally went back up into normal range. It is at 134 and needs to be 135 to be considered normal so it is just slightly off but I wish it were moving in the other direction. Previously, my doctor told me he doesn't get really concerned until the number drops to 130 so just something to watch. However, my potassium dropped really low which is really unusual for me since potassium is the one thing that my levels have always showed completely normal! Normal levels are 3.5-5.0 and yesterday mine was 3.1. Apparently sodium and potassium work hand in hand so to see both levels dropped below normal is concerning and frustrating.

Traci said she needed to get a hold of my doctor right away but he is actually on vacation this week. So she ended up talking to the on call doctor (who happens to be the OB who delivered Ella!) and he said that I need to get more potassium ASAP and ordered it to be put into my IV bags and delivered to my house last night. Apparently low potassium can have symptoms like heart palpitations and weakness so Traci asked about those. Well I am always feeling weak these days but I have been having palpitations when laying on my left side. I assumed it was due to the new PICC that I have on that side. Traci said that my PICC was probably overshot and too close to my heart, so another nurse came later yesterday and pulled my line out a few centimeters to see if that would help.

Because potassium straight in the bag is a bit much for the body to take on, I will now be on the IV machine for FOUR hours a day. :( Two hours in the morning and two at night. I am pretty bummed about this just because its a lot of time to be immobile and its hard to do with Ella around and Jeff working. So far the plan is for us to get up at 6 to run the first IV so hopefully Ella will still be sleeping during most of it and that way Jeff still has time to get ready for work after. The night IV we will start when Ella goes to bed at 8 PM and run until 10. Its depressing and not the news I was hoping for but what do you do? Traci will be back on Thursday to draw more blood to see how this potassium is helping and I also have a recheck at the dermatologist Thursday so he can take a final look at the rashes. I will update more then if anything has changed...