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kirst

Posts: 3
From: LN4 1NE
Registered: 08-Nov-2006

14 days in hospital !
Posted: 25-Nov-2006 21:28

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Tia-rose is nearing the end of a 14 day course of IV's and i can honestly say that while it is obviously for the best i am bored silly in the hospital all day long and was just wondering if anyone had any experience of home IV's ?
How old do kiddies need to be etc ?
She is fine in herself running all over the ward ! I have stayed with her every night as she won't let me leave although she does go to the school room in the morning. This is only the second time she has had IV's and it just brings it all home again. Sorry to ramble on just wanted any advice etc ?

Denise

Posts: 16
From: Bedfordshire
Registered: 08-Nov-2006

Re: 14 days in hospital !
Posted: 25-Nov-2006 21:51

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Hi

I'm not sure how old Tia-rose is, but I first did home IV's for Lauren (now 15)when she was 6yrs old. As a single parent, I found the experience totally exhausting, at the time she was on 2 different antibiotics, one 3 times a day and the other 4 times which meant I was administering IV's 7 times over a 24 hour period. At the time, there was a huge amount of responsibility involved, ie making sure there's no air bubbles in the syringe, making sure everything is sterile, making sure you mix up the doses correctly etc etc etc. Having said all that, I think things have become more relaxed in that you can get the doses delivered ready prepared, and the totally sterile method is different (think it's just the bits that touch which have to be sterile now).

Lauren now has IV's every 3 months (she's actually in hospital now) so it also depends how frequent it will be.

My advise is to see what service is offered from your hospital, and providing you have support from family/friends - then go for it. It's easier to carry on as normal when you're based at home.

Denise

Marjolein

Posts: 6
Registered: 14-Nov-2006

Re: 14 days in hospital !
Posted: 25-Nov-2006 22:11

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My experiences with home iv's are very different. With us it has always been fairly easy. I began them when i was 6 only because they didn't have them earlier, my doctor was the first doctor who began with them in the Netherlands. I was always on 2 different ab's. One of them i got 24 hours a day and we only had to change that ones every 24 hours (sometimes twice, depended on the kind of ab i was on). Usually we did that in the morning when i had to have Tobra too, and we did a dose of Tobra in the evening. We didn't have to mix anything ourselves. Our farmacy made it every week. I used the Easypump for Tobra and a cassete on a small pump for the other ab. I could carry the pump in a small bag i got with it. And it didn't bother me at all. The Easypump, a small ball empties itself and usually took about 45 minutes. So it never took that much time in a day.

If you are thinking of asking about home iv's next time. I would aks if you could have it that way too. To me this always sounds like the most easy, least invasive way, mostly time wise.

Message was edited by: Marjolein - to say i talk about the past because i had a lungtransplant 3.5 months ago so don't have iv's at home anymore (knock on wood). I'm 22 now.

BeckySerenDylan

Posts: 146
From: Suffolk
Registered: 06-Nov-2006

Re: 14 days in hospital !
Posted: 26-Nov-2006 11:52

Reply

I did home iv's for Dylan for the first time when he was about 13 months old. We stayed in hospital for the first 3 days of treatment (he was on 3 doses per day) and for the first couple of doses I just watched them prep and administer the doses, and practised on dummy sets, and then the next dose I practised prepping, but watched administering, and then after that, I did the lot. It was terrifying the first time, and the first time doing it alone at home was awful too, but it's been fine ever since.

It is definitely a lot of responsibility, as if you don't keep the whole thing sterile, you can introduce bugs into his bloodstream or his port, and if you don't get all the air out of the syringes or lines, that can also be very dangerous. Plus, if you're mixing the drugs yourself, which I have done quite a bit, there is always the risk of overdose.

But, on the plus side, it means that Dylan can stay home with his family, go to nursery and see his friends, and continue with as normal a life as possible, so it's definitely worth it.

Some courses do take a long time though, his last course I did in about July, took 1/2 hour or more to prep, then an hour on a syringe driver for the Gentamicin, and a half an hour on the syringe driver for the Ceftazidime, so that was a nightmare, as that's a heck of a lot of time out of a busy mum's day.

He also had iv's in September, but that was for a port infection (which he got when the nurse flushed his port, not from me, thank goodness, or I would have felt awful), and he was very very ill, so he had to stay in hospital for the whole two weeks, and ended up having surgery to remove the infected port and fit a new one.

Anyway, I hope that has answered some of your questions!

Becky x