It was a very tough week last week. The bad days were longer this time but John is up and about today looking more rested!
Tomorrow (Tuesday, July 14 at 8:45 am) John will be getting an IR Central Venous Catheter placed. I had no idea how many different types of catheters there were until my sister mentioned her experience with mom's catheter and her own. There are no specific details about which type John will be getting but I can make some educated guesses.
My google-guess is that he will be getting a Cuffed Tunneled catheter. I base this on:
- how long he will have the catheter
- the risks of infection
- how frequently it will be used
All of this is a SWAG but, just critically thinking about it, here's why.
At a minimum he'll have it 10-weeks. At a stretch maybe 24 weeks, which will take him to the end of the year. Because of the relatively short time frame I'm guessing there's no reason for the more long term Subcutaneous Tunneled catheter.
An alternate might be a PICC line but it holds higher infection risks that, I believe, the treatment plan avoids at all costs.
For each treatment a single-use IV is used to blood draw and deliver medications. His chemo medications include the cocktail RCHOP. Along with saline, the blood draw, and chemo meds, the IV can be used up to nine times in one treatment. In the last treatment it was also used to administer Benadryl to treat the rash he developed.
John doesn't mind the IV and can handle getting stuck as long as he doesn't have to watch. All the nurses in the Blood Cancer Center are experts and he says he rarely even feels it. At the end of treatment, though, he is happy to be rid of it. This is one of the downsides of having the catheter.
