April 23, 2014

Before bedtime on April 22nd, I went to flush Owen's broviac after changing his broviac dressing. I felt a small squirt of water hit my face. 

Panic. 

I tightened his clave (the blue cap on the end of the line, thinking it might have been loose and allowing the saline to get out). This time the saline slowly leaked out of a very small hole in the broviac. 

I quickly clamped the line below the leak and talked with my mom (who happens to be a RN). She told me that it would be safe to wait until the morning to contact the doctors since we weren't infusing anything into the line. We wrapped the leak with sterile gauze and after scrubbing all the surrounding skin with clora-prep, we covered the whole line with tegaderm so he could sleep through the night. The next day we actually had a GI appointment scheduled. I called the doc early in the morning and they said not to wait but to come early to the appointment. After discussing the options with the doctor (1. repair the line 2. remove the line), we decided to remove the line. We called surgery and there were no available slots for that day so we would have to come back the next day.

So, early morning we drove down to Oakland to have his broviac removed!

Owen slept on the car ride to the hospital 

 walking in . . . 

We waited a while for surgery. I talked with Owen to try to explain that he didn't need his broviac anymore and the doctors were going to remove it. He was soooo upset. It has been a part of his life for so long, he doesn't know what to do without it.We have always been positive about it so he didn't understand why we were so happy to remove it. 

One of Owen's NICU nurses came to wait with us before surgery. Playing with her kept his mind off the surgery.

 The surgery went really well with no complications. Here is Owen in recovery before waking up from anesthesia. 

He woke up smoothly and was a pretty happy boy. He said he wanted water and ice (something he requests whenever he is in the hospital hehe). He wasn't very happy when he realized the broviac was gone though

 Here is a picture with Janie (Owen's NICU nurse) and his recovery room nurse.