Another Day, Another Tube and a Drip for Good Measure

Two days. The last tube lasted two days. Two! This time we called our nurse navigator who organised that, rather than slumming it at emergency with the plebs, we'd go straight to the outpatient unit and organise things from there. Upon arrival about 10am I was greeted with a decision about whether to try and place the tube ourselves or wait until x-ray could hopefully do it sometime during the afternoon.

I called Chris in to join us and he had a go at placing the tube ourselves. As it does though, the tube kinked and we knew it wasn't in the right place. We'd have to wait for x-ray to find time for us after all.

By 2pm we were told that all of the waiting had been for nothing. The x-ray department had decided they couldn't fit us in today. In essence, we'd left her kinked tube in when we could have just taken it out and put a new one in ourselves hours ago and been on our way home. The decision was made that Frankie would need to be admitted.

We gave her a dose of midazolam which helped keep her calm but as soon as they attempted to cannulate her, all bets were off. I sat on the bed holding her tight like a little frog against me as they jabbed around trying to find a vein. It was hell as she screamed and wrestled, trying to escape me. Eventually they gave up on that plan so we pinned her to the table instead where they finally managed to get a vein. She was hysterical. And exhausted. And we still didn't have her feeding tube back in.

Cue pinning her down once again. Of course, we were unable to get a ph so the whole process went on far longer than it should have. When we finally got it in, after a huge mucus-filled vomit, Frankie had lost the plot. My adrenaline was through the roof and so was her's. So as I tried to calm her, she only became more and more agitated. On top of that, her arm wasn't secured well enough so the drip kept stopping due to a kink in her elbow. Every time they tried to fix it up Frankie would lose it once again, beginning to hyperventilate through her gasping cries.

When Chris arrived she'd had a sleep so I could hand her over and catch my breath. What a shitty day. She had an x-ray at 6pm which showed the tube was back in place but the doctors still weren't happy. Apparently her file didn't state clearly enough that once the tube was in we could go. So we spent 2 hours waiting for somebody to be sensible enough to disconnect her drip and send us home. Oh, and on top of that, the hospital fire alarm went off, one of the other blocks was evacuated and we had to listen to the piercing alarm for 10 minutes.

9pm rolled around and we got our baby home. Again. When would this ever end?