Thursday, November 18, 2010

Challenges of Infusing without a port

I'm going to make this as simple as possible. We recently had our six year olds port removed because it was infected. (That is another story) We're having a terrible, stressful time trying to infuse him. His veins aren't good and he's terrified of needles. He just got to the point at age six to let us infuse him in his port. It has caused the whole house to be stressed and at times yelling. We can't yell, I don't want this to be a punishment because we can't infuse him. He just cries and won't sit still at all. We've had to lay on him and then miss. When he stresses and we stress it doesn't work. I did get his vein once and he had the biggest smile on his face like it was Christmas I, went in the other room and cried. It has been emotionally and physically hard for us all. Anyone have any good ideas of how to get his veins to come up and help him not to be so stressed. We're trying more water and a heating pad. A favorite tv program won't do the job. His focus is on the needle and nothing else. On top of it all the poor baby has been in the hospital since school started 23 days. It's been a rough year. I plan on blogging about his experiences with the frequent hospital visits.
Thanks,
DeAnn

4 comments:

Lori said...

DeAnn,
I also have a son with difficult veins. It can be very stressful. One thing we found that helped with the sitting still was a reward basket. In the basket we put wrapped little presents that were low in cost. (Match Box car, a candy bar, cool band aids, etc. Thing from the dollar store, etc.) As far a getting those veins to pop up that can be a bit tricky. You are off to a great start witht having him drink water and using heat. Another thing that might help is when you go to put the touniquet on have him dangle his arm down. Once it is on then bring the arm level. Have you tried using numbing cream to help with the actual stick?

Good luck with the stick!
Lori

HemAware Editor said...

Have you reached out to your hemophilia treatment center to see if they have any advice? We cover this topic in a recent article of HemAware magazine, and you may be able to find a few tips in it: http://hemaware.org/story/needle-know-how

I'm sorry you're having this difficulty. Best of luck!

Suzanne said...

DeAnn,

I too had this conversation with another Mom here in SC and she has 2 boys with tough veins. She found that the hydrating works but she found to be most helpful is to have her boys take light (2 to 3 pounds) weights and while watchin a TV program do bicep curls. She said that helps to bring the veins up too. Hope it helps. I would love to hear your experiences and what works. We are contimplating taking out 10 year old's port out. Good luck!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Deana, sorry you having such a difficult time. I would suggest having him box his dads hands. This gets those veins excited!!!

Also check out this amazing site for logging infusions and bleeds, you can take a picture of the bleed and post it on the community site if you want advice from other moms, its awesome- used it since June. You can even let your son log his own infusions. There is an awesome little kids video on how to that he will love- CHECK OUT THIS AWESOM SITE FOR HEMOPHILIACS- IClick on the link https://microhealth.org/pages/learn-more.html