Scared Of Healing

New Line

I have finished with my quick detour to the emergency department and am making my way up to Luke's office, hoping to talk to him about potentially inserting a PICC for Ellie, knowing that she can't keep having new cannulas every few days. I get to level 1 and walk to my friend's office, stopping at the door when I hear, what sounds like, fighting going on inside. "You are this close to losing your internship, I swear to god" I hear Luke yell before the door is flung open and an intern quickly rushes out, dipping his head to avoid the iminent stares.

I walk into the room to see Luke sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. "You 'right buddy?" I ask as I walk in and slump in one of his chairs. "That man is going to be the death of us all" he mumbles. "Who was it?" I ask, "who do you think" he groans. "Baker..." I mumble making Luke nod his head, still with it in his hands. "What did he do now?" I ask, Luke looks up to me, "we were trying to put a little girl under and she was super nervous... do you know what he did... he started trying to explain to her that we were going to cut open her stomach!" he says angrily. "Oh my god dude, I don't even wanna know why he thought that was a good idea" I sigh. Luke takes another deep breath, "sorry mate, what did you come in for" he asks, changing the subject. "Yeah, are you free for a PICC insertion at some point tomorrow?" I ask. Luke quickly looks through his schedule, "uhh... yeah, I'm free tomorrow at 3:30 as long as there are no emergencies" he says. "Ok, Ellie's having issues with her cannula and I reckon it's probably best to get a line in if she's gonna be here for a while" I say. He nods, "I'll pencil it in" he says, jotting it down in his schedule before quickly turning to look at his computer and typing it into the theatres booking as well. 

I then call Crystal to tell her to let Ellie know what is going to happen before I begin walking to find Cal so we can get home. Crystal quickly calls back after telling our patient about what's happening tomorrow afternoon. "Babe, she seems really scared" my wife says, "alright, I'm going home soon so just tell her that we can have a chat about it tomorrow..." I say, finding Cal and silently waving him over to me. We start walking out to the car while I continue talking to my wife, "...maybe try to ease her nerves and see why she might be so nervous" I reply, "yeah, alright... I'll do that" Crystal says before hanging up. Cal and I then get in the car and start making our way home.

It's now 1:30 in the morning and I notice Crystal slip herself next to me in our bed. "Hey baby" I mumble, "hey Mikey" she mumbles back, gently pressing her lips to mine. We kiss before she just slumps into her pillow and falls asleep almost immediately. I smile before falling asleep myself.

We all sleep until about 12, catching up on our sleep, knowing that none of us have to get to the hospital until 1:30 today. I get up, finding Crystal already awake and scrolling on her phone. I chuckle and get up to start getting ready.

It's officially 1:15, meaning that we are all in our cars, making our way to the hospital. I have rounds until 3, then I'm on call for the next 12 hours. I have decided that, unless I get called for something, I will observe Ellie's PICC insertion, knowing that it may not go to plan. We get to the hospital and all disperse to our respective departments and I start my rounds. I make my way first to the PICU, then the general paediatric wards to see my patients. The adolescent ward is my last stop and I check in on all of my adolescent patients before making my way to Ellie's room. I walk in and see that she is asleep. I don't want to wake her because I know that she needs as much rest as she can get, but I also know that Luke should be ready for her in about half an hour.

I move over to her and sit in the chair next to her, carefully trying to wake her up, "Ellie my sunshine, can you wake up for me" I say softly. She stirs quietly and her eyes slowly flutter open as she wakes. "Hey sweetheart, how is your hand feeling?" I ask as she wakes. "It's sore" she mumbles. "Ok sweetie, Luke is coming up soon so we can get you a better line" I say, "nooo" she groans. "Can I ask what the big issue with this might be Ellie?" I ask carefully. Ellie sighs, sitting herself up. Her heart monitor starts beeping , telling me that her pulse has spiked. I let her stabilise before listening to what she has to say. "Um... when I was younger, I had a PICC put in and the guide wire snapped off... It got stuck in my heart and they had to do surgery to get it out" she says. "Wow sweetie, that sounds really scary, are you worried that that might happen again?" I ask, she just nods, softly biting her lip, "yeah, ok hon, we're gonna be super careful alright, it will be Luke and only the people we trust. We can put you to sleep and you won't feel anything" I say. "No" Ellie says quickly, "I don't like going under general" she says. "That's ok sunshine, have you ever had a PICC in awake?" I ask, "yeah. No sedation though... I don't like that either" she says. "Ok Elle, as long as you are comfortable with being fully alert" I say, knowing that we don't usually have nervous patients awake during procedures that can take over an hour, but she seems confident.

Luke then walks into the room with a file and a gown, "hi angel" he smiles to Ellie. "Hey" she mumbles, "can I get you into this lovely gown Ellie?" Luke asks enthusiastically, receiving a small nod. Ellie quickly changes into the gown, "do you want the cannula out now sunshine?" I ask. Ellie immediately nods, leading Luke to quickly gather the equipment before passing them to me. We both slide on a pair of gloves.

"Ok sweetie, I'm just gonna hold your hand now" I warn before taking her hand gently. Luke then passes me a wipe so I can weaken the adhesive of the dressing. I gently wipe it over the edges of the sticker and see them begin to lift, allowing me to slowly and easily peel it off. I have gotten the dressing off Ellie's skin and it is just stuck to the external parts of the cannula now. I gently gather the cannula, ready to pull it out, making sure Luke is ready with the cotton ball. Once I know that he is, I give my patient a little warning, "alright, take a nice deep breath in for me Ellie... and out" I say and as she breathes out, I pull out the line. Luke quickly presses the cotton ball to the puncture wound as I dispose of the cannula. "Good job angel" Luke praises before replacing the cotton with a bandaid.