Friday, August 10, 2007

return of the smack

Yesterday, my brother had the IV line taken out of his arm, permanently. Hooray! This was a joyous occasion for all because it was the cause of much getting-up-at-all-hours-of-the-night, itching and overal misery for everybody: He needed to flush the IV by squeezing a syringe of saline into the line, hook up the medicine bag, let it drip into his arm, flush the IV again and and repeat, four times a day for the last couple weeks. He was always cold, had a temperature that spiked to 103F pretty often, and couldn't keep any food down. He was so miserable, all he did was lie down and sort of watch tv.

After the first few days the first PICC line in his upper left arm began to burn whenever the antibiotics were going through. And then it started to leak. So they removed it and put in a similar IV called a midline that didn't go so far into his vein in the upper right arm, which ended up doing the same the same burning/leaking thing after a few days. The home health nurse redid that one a few times, but they finally got sick of all that drama two weeks into it and took the damn thing out*. Now he's on oral antibiotics and MUCH happier.

Now that the IV is gone, he's better able to keep food down, but the antibiotics make everything (even Portillos!) taste like plywood. His temperature is still hovering around 100F, but he's walking around the house and up to his old shenanigans. The power cord on his new XBox 360 is defective, so he's been on the horn with customer service, and I'm sure it won't be long until the parade of his local buddies starts coming in with boxes of pizza to cause a most welcome ruckus again.

However, the reason I know he feels better is that he has resumed openly mocking me. Last night's target: my new "day" schedule.

"Yep. Right about 9:30, your head starts drooping and your pressing my legs becomes extremely half-assed. Then at about 10 or so, you go downstairs and sit on the couch with mom for a bit and start to drool. Then at 10:30 you'll get up and go brush your teeth and come back up here, acting like you're all awake because you're rejuvenated. But that never lasts long and you start dozing again. By 11 you're full-out passed out, and that's the ballgame."

"Whatever, smartass."




*Knowing he went through all that gave me the courage to sign up to donate blood next week, if for anything, so he won't call me a wuss.

14 comments:

  1. are you snoozin' again??? :)

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  2. Now you're donating blood?

    Ok, I'm officially the worst person on this blog.

    Did I say "on this blog"? I meant "in the world".

    To the blood bank!

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  3. So glad he got rid of that nasty thing! Anything that masks the taste of Portillo's is a nasty thing. Now go have a chicken focaccia sandwich and a strawberry spinach salad for me. But be sure you order the sandwich from the Barnelli's side of the restaurant, lest they get all sassy on you.

    Oh, how I miss Portillo's.

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  4. I have to say that if the power cord on my PS3 started acting up, that shit would need to be fixed pronto.

    It's a shame about the antibiotics ruining the taste of food. I can't think of a worse way to have the suffering amplified than not being able to enjoy something delicious.

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  5. Hooray for progress!

    And while you should by all means go through with the blood-letting, your bro will most likely find some other excuse to call you a wuss.

    But you know this I am sure.
    :)

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  6. I'd totally go donate blood with you. You know...if I was physically there.

    Glad to hear the brother's doing relatively good (plywood though, sadness about the lacklustre tastebuds).

    Just read Nadia's comment. I will adopt your brother's "open-mocking" system and hope for the same results. Off I go!

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  7. Good for you, donating blood! You can lie and say giving blood has totally rejuvenated you and you can stay awake all day.

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  8. I'm happy to hear he's feeling a bit better. What an ordeal!

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  9. Wait a minute, I thought you were supposed to be some sort of night owl?

    If not, your brother is well within his rights to call you out.

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  10. I'm so glad your brother's feeling better.

    I keep meaning to go donate blood. You're so good!

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  11. 1.) donating blood rocks. i do it regularly. it's good for the soul

    2.) can't taste portillos?! that's the most awful thing i've ever heard!

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  12. Mmmmm, XBox 360...

    Very glad things are improving.

    Passed out by 11? The dungeon diva has officially left the building, it seems!

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  13. so glad to hear everything is okay. and when brothers have enough energy to give their sisters a hard time then you know they are on the road to recover.

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  14. Hooray that he's feeling better!

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