Today is the 5th day that Dylan has been in hospital on antibiotics and his fever has still not subsided. His blood cultures are still positive, so this morning the doctor came in and told me that tomorrow, Dylan’s line must be removed. The only reason it is being left until tomorrow is because today in New York it is labor day (a public holiday) Dylan will need to have an anesthetic, and a temporary line will be put in place. Then in the next week or two, Dylan will have another permanent central line put in. I have spoken with Dylan about the idea of having a port put in if his broviac (hickman) line was ever removed. Dylan refused when I spoke to him about ports a few months ago, so I totally dropped the subject. To my surprise, after he heard the doctor say his line needs to be pulled out, Dylan turned to me and said “I have been thinking that I want a port now mummy”. The difference between a broviac line and a port is that a broviac line hangs down from his chest, and he requires dressing changes a couple of times a week. A port is a device that is place under the skin on the chest and only has lines exposed during treatments. The port will enable Dylan to go swimming and take showers, it will also mean he does not have to have dressing changes, and because the lines are not dangling down all the time, hopefully it will mean less chance of line infections. The only draw back to a port is that he will need to be accessed every week, meaning he will need a needle put through his skin, reaching the port. To read more and see pictures, take these links:
Broviac Lines
Central Venous Access (Port)
Dylan is sleeping a lot and this morning he needed a blood transfusion. His counts are dropping and by tomorrow he will be neutropenic (have no immune system). The only thing that Dylan is concerned about is that he was unable to go to Skye’s house as planned today, he was going to bake me a belated birthday cake. Actually, I think Dylan just has a craving for cake batter again!
