Romy’s central line enters her chest and is tunnelled underneath her skin, and into one of the large veins in her heart, sitting in one of the heart chambers. Although the line is always covered with a dressing, which is changed every week, having a piece of plastic permanently in your body is not natural and is an infection risk. Her temperature is checked twice a day without fail and if she gets a temperature this means immediately attending hospital where a broad spectrum IV antibiotic needs to be administered within 30 minutes. The antibiotics are normally given for at least 48 hours while tests are undertaken to try to find the cause of the temperature and blood cultures are taken from her line to see if the line could have an infection. Sometimes a reason is found for the temperature, other times a reason cannot be found but if nothing grows from the blood culture this suggests a dangerous infection is probably not the cause and the antibiotics can be discontinued. Attending A&E is never very pleasant but especially with an immunocompromised child and visits there don’t go very smoothly. On this occasion, there was no bed available on our usual Oncology ward so we were transferred from A&E to a surgical ward for a few days until the Drs were happy that she could discontinue the antibiotics. These unplanned admissions are always very stressful and this one was probably the worst yet. Romy was discharged in time to start her next cycle of immunotherapy.
Helen & Tom
