No, that’s not a misspelling. About a week ago the nurses noticed some discharge at the place where my central venous catheter entered my chest. I was experiencing no pain but out of caution they swabbed the area and sent a specimen to the lab. It turned out positive for a virus called pseudomonas. So they pulled out the catheter. For the past week, I have had to go to the ITA every day for an infusion of antibiotics to kill it off. My luck again, they got it early. It hadn’t entered my blood stream and disseminated. They say that if it did, it could have been life threatening. Wow! I sure wish I had a functioning immune system. As Joni Mitchell says, “you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”
That brings me to veins. Without the central catheter, I have to get stuck in the arm to get infusions. Generally that’s no big deal for most people. Surprise! I’m not “most people.” I don’t have any veins on the surface of my arms. They are all down deep under what has been described to me by a nurse as “very tough skin.” (I call it a hide.) No surprise to me. I’m a lawyer. We are known to have thick skins. After 37 years of practice, what do they expect? That I’m going to be easy to get blood out of? They’d have a better chance trying to get it out of a stone.
As of day 6 post-catheter, I have had three stick insertions (They last in an arm about 3 days.) Seven nurses have tried to find a vein. Six have failed to find one in either arm, except in the crux of my elbow — which in my view is cheating. In fact four of them have had trouble there too. I have had a number of failed attempts made in my wrist and in my arms. They’ve tried heat packs, alcohol rubbing, slapping my arms — no luck. Sometimes I think that are operating on a lick and a promise, with the scientific assurance of a water dowser. They stick in the needle and move it around. They wiggle it back and forth, hoping against hope that they will miraculously find a way into a vein. One nurse achieved success so far, after considerable probing. In the beginning (Where have I heard that phrase before?) it hurt a lot. Now I am barely noticing it. In the beginning, I looked away. It grossed me out. Now I watch with amusement. Today I offered to bet a nurse she couldn’t find a vein. She didn’t take me up on it; luckily for her. I guess you could say her efforts were not in vein.
If luck is with me, I only have one more round of the game “find a vein” before I finish this course of antibiotics. Then pseudomonas will be history for me. If that happens, I’ll only have to go into the ITA once or twice a week. I know I’ll miss all the staff there. It’s the only place where I’m permitted to socialize and commiserate. I can even take off my mask there. We’ll see what esoteric bug I can acquire to replace it.