Same-Day Surgery for a Central Line

We just got home from Primary Children's where Teague had a central line placed today. It was only a 30-minute procedure, but all told, we were at the hospital for about five hours. Felt like a cakewalk compared to an extended stay, like before. Still, it's stressful to send your child into any kind of surgery and to see him hurting when he comes out.

Teague did great. We didn't even have them give him any happy meds before sending him in, and that was the right call. Just like last time, he went right with the anesthesiologist. He was in a little push-car, waving back at us as he went around the corner. Looks like this kid is learning the ropes. Sad and comforting at the same time.

Teague is sore and fussy, and he had one dose of morphine post-op. We'll do over-the-counter pain management from here on out. He's had some ibuprofen, and now he's just hangin' with Quinn on the couch, watching Dora the Explorer.


There's one tube coming out of his chest. We've got it taped down. It's weird, but it will be so much better than him getting poked every single day for a new IV, and different pokes if they ever need blood.

The nurse showed me how to flush his line (she even let me do it), and that will have to be done once a day. I'll probably only do it on weekends, though, because they'll do it for me on treatment days. The home health nurse will come tomorrow and show us how to change dressings and bathe him with this thing in.

We're waiting for a call back to schedule his MRI and CT for next week. After that, we're off and running with treatments.