Friday, April 6, 2007

Octopus


Oh, the octopus. Kristi's constant companion. She even had to shower attached to it today. It has a 5 hour battery life. Seems pretty sophisticated. It can adjust the flow dynamically and be programed to deliver drips in a sequence. Though, the sequencing matters little now since her central line has 3 independent ports. The issue with this is that some drugs are incompatable and can't be mixed. Her Hickman has 3 independent inputs into her blood stream. For all it's modern wonder, the octopus never lets you forget it's there. It beeps constantly. I still haven't had the guts to do anything about the beeps. To us they just mean "find the nurse". Last night, the beeps drove us nuts. The orderlys and assistant nurses would just reset it. What's the point of beeps if everyone else just ignores them? Eventually it induces a response from the staff. I guess I can appreciate how something this annoying might get backgrounded.

1 comment:

PeteW said...

Kristi--

Just got news of your situation! Want you to know that we're thnking of you in Minnesota! I know you've got the tenacity to fight this given how long we worked on that line paper!! :)

PeteW