A new hitch

Hopefully this lead to anything serious, but Mina Brigitta had to have her Broviac catheter replaced today. The other night she woke up screaming and thrashing around, and it took amost half an hour to calm her down. Somehow her line must have gotten cracked a little bit near the cap, because two nights she woke up with some blood on her shirt. Nurse Stacey spotted the small crack today during a dressing change. To repair the line, they had to sever it above the crack and glue a new end onto it. The glue needs 48 hours to dry completely, but it can be used four hours after the repair, which is a good thing because tonight she needs platelets and antibiotics.

The real danger, of course, is infection. Mina Brigitta had to have her line repaired last year, and ended up with an antibiotic resistant Gram negative infection. But last year it happened while we were at home and she had some white blood cells. Right now she has nothing, so we'll have a couple of nervous days waiting to see if she develops a fever.

Other than that, Mina Brigitta actually had a fine day. I could tell when she woke up this morning that she felt better, and that carried over throughout the day. She and Grandma walked me to the elevator when I left for work, and then walked the halls a bit before going back to the room for lunch. The days (and nights) are always so much easier when she's feeling well. She's taken to calling men "Uncle", so today she said hello to an "Uncle" in the hallway. She's also been referring to people she sees in pictures as "momma", "dadda", "bubba", "sissy" or just "baby". The uncle thing seems to fit the pattern, but her nurse on Wednesday was "Michael", so I think that may have helped cement it in her mind. She still only uses "Anta" to refer to Teri or Kari, though.