Casey Jo Hospital Update #1

Well, Casey Jo is in the hospital again. She had a follow up appointment on January 15th to see how she was doing after getting off IVs in December. Casey called her nurse a couple days before her appointment to let them know she wasn't feeling any better and they said to pack her bags. Her PFT's were down from 27% to 24%. She did gain 2lbs from last visit though!!!

On Wednesday they had to put in a normal IV because the PICC team could not fit her in on the schedule. They had to run the IVs very slow to not blow/burn the vein but at one point her arm started to burn inside so they had to run them even slower. Thursday, the PICC team came and got the PICC line in with only two attempts. She is on 3 IV meds. Vancomycin is every 12 hours with Benadryl because of her reaction, Zosyn is every 6 hours and they put her on an IV she's never been on called Colistin which is every 8 hours. Since she is on Colistin, she has to stay in the hospital the whole time.  She can't go home on IVs like in the past. Colistin can have a severe reaction of respiratory failure so she has to be monitored... that's why she can't go home. They said respiratory failure is very rare. She would first start feeling really short of breath and if that would happen they would just stop the drug and she should be back to normal in 24-48 hours. Another side effect is numbness/tingling of the lips and tongue which she has but the doctors like to hear that because that means the drug is working!

She was very excited to receive an edible arrangement from her former work place, Westfield Insurance Parkersburg office!!! (She had already started eating on it before the picture was taken) :)