Pic line

Sat. Nov 14th....headed for Seattle VA at 8:15 pm. Gator got a fever of 103.3 and we were told to call if he had a temp of 100.5 and up. So we called the oncologist on call in Seattle
(Dr. Zimmerman) and he said we should come to Seattle. I gave Gator 2 vicodin at home and as soon as I wheeled him into the ER waiting room he threw up in the garbage can.

 I told the man at the desk that Gator had a temp of 103.3 but he "forgot" to write that down and it took 1 1/2 hours before they even checked Gators vitals. I went up to the desk every 15 minutes and the guy there said they only had 1 Dr. and 2 nurses and they would be with us as soon as they could. When they finally called Gator back I told the nurse that Gator had a temp of 103.3 and the nurse said "oh! nobody mentioned that!" He just said that Gator was sick from the chemo. The guy at the front desk is the same guy I talked to on the phone about the motel screw up.... Do you think he recognized our name? Jerk...
They pumped Gator full of fluids and then at about 4am sent us over to the Georgetown motel. Then at 11am Sunday morning (my birthday!) they drew more blood and pumped more fluids into him. A total of 6 bags! I sat by the bed and watched him sleep all day.

 Sent him home at about 4pm with antibiotics and a tablet for him to disolve in his mouth because he got "Thrush" from the chemo. They told us to come back if the fever came back. His blood pressure went really low while we were in there and at one point while he was sleeping his O2 leval dropped really low...like he quit breathing for a couple seconds and was a little hard to wake up...scary! We didn't like the way the nurses were working with Gator's pic line. They never wore gloves and didsn't really seem to know what they were doing. We mentioned it to each of the nurses and they all said they knew what they were doing....The wrong cap was put on one of the lines by the last nurse so I guess he didn't know what he was doing!

We went to see Jeannie at the IV clinic at American Lake the next day and she fixed the pic line right up. She definately knows what she's doing and makes this weekly trip to flush the lines and change bandages almost enjoyable! :)