I am 23 weeks pregnant today! Still feeling about the same- nausea has increased a bit after being of of fluids and nausea medication but I am doing really well with not vomiting. In the past five days I have only gotten sick twice and both were on Saturday. I sure can't wait until I can have some days with no nausea but am thrilled to not be vomiting! My nurse came to change the dressing on my PICC and do bloodwork yesterday. She called this morning to tell me that my labs came back pretty good- same as last week. Sodium is still a bit low at 134 and potassium is normal at 3.9. I thought that was good news considering I am off the fluids completely and have been for the past four days. So the plan was to continue flushing the line with Heparin this week and get my PICC pulled next Monday.
WELL, this morning, I woke up and my arm was really sore and was getting red around the insertion site. When my nurse called about my labs I mentioned it to her and she said she would need to stop by after school to take a look at it because it could be infected. So she came over and I showed her and asked her what she thought and she smiled and said "Let's pull it." I think I did a double take and my jaw dropped to the floor. She had called the doctor and let him know my symptoms and he gave the okay to go ahead and pull it. Infections are nothing to mess around with and since I am already off fluids and doing okay he said it was no big deal to take it out a few days early. So once again we sat at my kitchen table and she pulled out the line! This time I wasn't as nervous- I really didn't have a chance to be since it was so unexpected. Here is a picture of the line after it was removed- it was about 15 inches long!
The nurse put betadine on my arm and covered it with a bandage for a few hours and now it is off. There is a small hole where the catheter went in and it is a bit swollen but looks pretty good! So after more than THREE MONTHS of home health care, iv fluids, iv meds, showers with wrapped arms, weekly nurse visits, etc. I am FREE of the PICC! This has been a day that I have been looking forward to for a LONG time. Jeff and I were talking and since I was six weeks pregnant I have had an appointment or seen some type of medical professional at least once a week if not more. From early spotting, to hospital visits for dehydration, two PICC insertions at the hospital, weekly nurse's visits and OB appointments it seems like it is always something! I will get a little reprieve now. I do have a scheduled OB appointment next week along with my glucose test so am really hoping that all goes well. I failed my one hour glucose test with Ella and had to take the three hour and am really hoping to avoid that this time around. After that appointment at 24 weeks, I will not be scheduled to see the doctor again until 28 weeks and then start every two weeks after that. So it is possible that I may get to go four whole weeks with no doctor's appointments- how crazy would that be! Thanks to all for your suppot and encouragement during the past few months- it has been a rough road but of course all worth it in the end! I will update next week :)
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