Joyce's KP Adventure mikepasini.com headlines

The Checklist

28 February 2022

This morning, I'll set Joyce up for her third unsupervised home IV-antibiotic infusion, which takes an hour. We were to get it going at 9:30 a.m. every day so her blood stream always has the antibiotic working for her.

Morning Antibiotic IV. They gave us everything but the pole to hang the bag, so I'm using a light stand.

Later today, we'll meet Barbara the RN, who will assess Joyce for in-home nursing and do her first Wound VAC dressing change since coming home. I had to patch the existing one yesterday to fix another leak alarm but otherwise the Wound VAC has been quiet.

We did get a new Wound VAC with a battery that lasts all day with an overnight charge. But the battery charger plug doesn't stay on. So I put a rubber band on it to hold it on to the Wound VAC itself.

I also decided that it would make the infusion a lot safer if I compiled a checklist for the procedure. I'm on my third revision of the list:

There's something like 30 steps involved for six main operations. You're given an hour or so at the hospital to observe and practice this. Insane.

One of the peculiar aspects of it is that you don't wear gloves. You can, of course, but if you do, the recommendation is to wash the gloves with soap and water. So what's the point?

You have to wash your hands with soap and water anyway and your naked fingers are a little nimbler than gloved fingers with the small parts you have to deal with.

The checklist makes it a lot easier to sail through the setup, application and shutdown. And safer. After using it for three days, I feel a lot better about doing this safely.

I'm putting it up here in case anyone else would like it.


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