Hospital Discharge

Last night, Kaitlyn was having a lot of discomfort around her port site. We weren't sure if the needle had slipped out of the port or if the tape was pulling at her skin. So, the nurse came and checked a 'blood return' from the line and it was working fine. There was also no swelling around the site either, which meant that the needle was still in the correct position. This only left us to assume that it was the tape pulling at her skin that was causing so much discomfort. We finally got her to calm down enough to go to sleep. However, she went right back to the screaming and crying about it as soon as she woke up the next morning. This continued on and off for a few hours before I finally asked the nurse if we could have her port de-accessed after the morning round of antibiotics. Her response of course was, "I will have to check with the doctor." To which I replied, "OK, let me rephrase. I am not asking for permission to have her port de-accessed, I am telling you to de-access her port." She went off to find the Dr.

My thinking was that she would most likely be discharged in the afternoon and she wasn't due for another round of antibiotics until late afternoon, so she probably wouldn't be getting that round anyway. On top of that, she hadn't had a fever or any sign of being sick since we got to the 5th floor and into the room on Sunday. Whatever it was, it left as quickly as it came. So, I felt that they were really just being overly cautious with Kaitlyn because of her condition.

Anyway, the resident showed up to explain to us that she couldn't be de-accessed because it is hospital policy that "chemo kids" stay on a full 48 hours of antibiotics (Yes, she called Kaitlyn a "chemo kid" instead of using her name, but that's another rant). I again explained that I wasn't asking to have her port de-accessed and she tried to throw the hospital policy back in my face. She finally said that she would have to talk to Dr. Keuker. To which I replied, "Why do you have to talk to Dr. Keuker. I am telling you right now, I want her de-accessed. What is to talk to him about?" She said that he needed to know what was going on. I then asked WHEN she was going to talk to him and she said that she was going to page him right now (8:50am). I agreed. I quickly jumped into the shower and before I got out of the shower, Dr. Keuker had already been to the room and gave us his blessing to leave. We were out of there and home by 10am. We have NEVER been discharged that early before. Poor Dr. Keuker, I think he was just walking into the building when he got the page because he was still in his coat when he came into the room. He didn't hesitate in letting us go home, so I am sure that there was no real risk in letting her go home before the last round of antibiotics were administered. I am confident that if there were a risk, he would have let us know that. If someone had given me a medical reason for her to stay accessed then I would have agreed, but to tell me that my daughter has to stay in pain for another 6 hours because of hospital policy is ridiculous.

It feels so good to be home even if there are a million things to catch up on...