Dodged a bullet!

Tuesday night I was feeling kind of "punk" and was lounging on the couch watching television with Rod. When I got up to go to the kitchen to mix my Flolan, I discovered that my t-shirt under my sweatshirt was wet. I laid the shirt back down and saw that the wet spot matched up with my catheter. I called for Rod and we both looked all up and down the tubing. I thought I spotted a pin-pick sized hole in the tubing, about an inch above where the Flolan tubing is inserted into the central line tubing. Neither one of us could actually see any fluid on the line or on the possible hole. But, Rod decided the best thing to do was to tape the tube at the spot we thought might have a hole and see what happens. I had no more "leaking" during the night or the next morning. So, we assumed we had the problem fixed. I know I should have called my PH doctor, but I have an appointment for next Wednesday and figured since everything seemed "OK" and we weren't even sure that there was a problem, I just kind of forgot about it. Then I talked to Nick yesterday (my 27 year old 2nd year surgery resident who has put in lots of central lines) and he was not at all happy with my decision. He told me to call my doc asap. I did and he responded in similar fashion to Nick. He said that I needed to come in and see him right away in the morning. (Thursday morning at 8:30 am)

Last night (Wednesday) I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom and I discovered that my pajama top was pretty wet. Again, it was in the area of the tubing. I felt perfectly fine so I put on a clean top and went back to bed. When I woke up in the morning my shirt was dry. Very odd. I was really glad that I had an appointment.

My PH doctor checked out the line and couldn't see anything. The tape was still in place so if I was having a leaky line, it wasn't coming from that spot. He checked the connections and just couldn't find anything wet or anything wrong.

So, I came home and put new claves on each line (I have a double lumen).




I taped tissue at the connection spot on both lines so if I have any more "leaks" we can have a better idea where it's coming from. In the meantime, my doctor is going to check with a surgeon and see if they can repair the line if I have any more problems, or to schedule to have a new line put in if it ends up that I actually have a line problem. Right now we're going with the theory that I might have had a couple of bad connections and hopefully things are just fine. I sure hope so. I really, really don't want to have a new line put in. I've had the same line for 4 1/2 years. Supposedly that's quite a long time for a line.

So, if you're the praying kind, I would really appreciate a prayer that I have no more "leaks" and I can keep my line and avoid having surgery.

Thanks for reading.