The new attending came by in the morning, Dr. Yun…I’m guessing at the spelling. The attending docs rotate every week or two so they’re constantly changing. Dr. Diamond and a resident came by as well. Dr. Diamond is rounding for the Oncology Team this week. He was our original oncologist when they thought Shannon had Lymphoma. It was good to see him again, it had been a month or so since we last saw him. By late morning we were still waiting for the VAT Team or IR to place Shannon’s line. The VAT Team remembered that they had issues placing the PICC at bedside last admission so they said she needs to go to IR for the line placement. IR was backed up all day with outpatient procedures.
IR called up to the floor on a couple of occasions telling our nurse that they were coming to get Shannon. We waited and waited. It was about 5pm when they finally came to get her. I went down to IR with Shannon and sat with her until they were ready for the procedure. Everyone was being very friendly and the mood seemed different than previous times. Shannon thinks maybe she changed them. LOL. Shannon did make some informal complaints about IR to our doctors and nurses during the last admission and also on the post-hospitalization survey. Maybe word got back to them and they’re trying to change….hopefully.
One of the IR doctors, a Fellow, explained everything and had Shannon sign her consent. He explained the pros/cons of a PICC vs a Tunneled CVC and with his help we all decided a Tunneled CVC was best. This is the same type of IV Access she had last time. The Fellow was very informative and had great bedside manner. I’m going to have to get his name, I missed it. A Fellow is a doctor in a Fellowship. Fellowship is basically an extended Residency where doctors complete more extensive training a a sub-specialty. These Fellows have already completed med school and a Residency program.
Shannon went back for the procedure and I waited for almost an hour. Her IR Nurse was Victor, a super cool older nurse. Victor brought her out on a stretcher after the proceedure and we headed back upstairs to the room. Shannon was having a conversation with Victor about our trip to Belize earlier this year. We were telling him how great it is down there. I think we conviced him to go check it out.
Shannon said the procedure went great and the IR doctor, Dr. Fahrtash, was one she had previously. She said he did a really good job and explained everything. They got the line placed easily and she wasn’t in any pain.
We had some Mediterranean food for dinner (UberEats) and relaxed while waiting for a room on the 20th floor. We figured it will probably be Thursday before we get a room up there.