Scared Of Healing

First Infuser Change

Ellie sits at the table and smiles, "how's he going?" she asks, looking to me with a smirk. I chuckle, "not bad... not bad" I say, nodding. Calum laughs, "we're about to find out! Come sit over here" he says, hooking his foot around the leg of the chair next to him and pulling it out so Ellie can sit. She chuckles and moves to sit over next to Calum. She has a quick look at the tray Cal has prepared and gives me a little look out of the corner of her eye. I shrug, not knowing what she means and she rolls her eyes, "somebody's forgotten wipes" she says. Calum laughs at himself and I chuckle too, completely forgetting. "At least someone knows what they're doing" Ash chimes in and Cal nods, "thank god you're here" he laughs, getting up and grabbing a few wipes. He rips the top off them before dropping them in the sterile field so he can access them easily when he needs them. Ellie leans back in her chair with a judgemental look across her face, her arms crossed as she nods slowly, "very well done. Very well done" she comments before breaking character and we all laugh.

As we all calm down a bit, Cal decides to start, "alrighty darling... should we give it a go?" he suggests. Ellie nods, placing her arm on the table so Cal has better access. He sits sideways on his chair and gently pulls down the sock over the PICC site. He smiles, changing his gloves and picking up a wipe, "you know how this goes, right?" he asks Ellie with a smirk. Ellie chuckles, "no... I've never had this done" she replies sarcastically. Cal chuckles, cleaning the join between the PICC line and the infuser line before twisting them apart. He drops the infuser line, letting it fall where it pleases as he focuses his attention to the end of the PICC, clamping it and holding it up, making sure it stays clean. He quickly grabs the first flush and awkwardly twists the top off while still holding the end of the PICC. Ellie chuckles at him, "you got a better idea?" he asks sarcastically. She shakes her head, "no... it's just funny" she laughs. Cal rolls his eyes, "you're mean" he complains, just prompting further laughs from everyone in the room. He then twists the flush onto the end of the line, unclamps it, and starts pushing...

"Cal!" I interrupt. "What? What have I done wrong?" he asks. Ellie chuckles, "don't scare him Mikey! He's fine" she says. I laugh softly, looking to Cal, "pulse it... break up any clots there might be" I remind. He nods, "you scared me dude!" he complains. I roll my eyes, "do it right and that won't happen" I say. He sticks his tongue out as he pushes the plunger with his thumb, pulsing it to make sure there aren't any clots. He twists the flush off, happy with how the line flushed, before putting the empty syringe back in the tray and grabbing the fresh 100mL syringe. He screws the needle onto the end of it and places it back. Ellie stares at it and I can't tell if she's just watching everything or if it's made her nervous. By no stretch of the imagination does that thing not look scary, it's a massive syringe with a wide, blunt needle on the end. That is not a comforting sight, but I don't know what's going through Ellie's mind. Cal must be going through the same train of thought because as he goes to twist the caps off the saline vials, he stops and looks at her. "You good darling? I know it's not a very nice looking needle" he says. Ellie smiles and nods, "I'm all good. As long as you don't stab me with it, I'll be fine" she replies. We chuckle and nod as Cal picks the needle up and puts it into the vials of saline, pulling the plunger to fill the syringe. He goes through three vials to get to 60 mL before throwing them away. He then flicks the cap off the antibiotic vials and pushes the needle through the seal. He looks to Ellie and raises an eyebrow, "you still doing alright darl?" he asks as he adds the antibiotics to the saline in the syringe before twisting the needle off it. Ellie nods as the needle is put in the sharps bin and Cal picks up another wipe. He cleans the PICC line again before twisting the large syringe onto the end. He looks to me, "wanna set the timer for me?" he asks. I nod, grabbing my phone and setting a 30 minute timer. I place my phone next to him so he can keep an eye on the time as he slowly starts pushing the medication.

Ellie chuckles, "I don't know why but it always feels different when this one is pushed rather than done through a drip. It's like I can taste it" she says. I nod, "I've had a few kids say that actually. It's weird how that works" I reply. Ellie smiles and we all start chatting while we wait.

Ash pipes up, "hey sweet girl... can we talk about something?" he asks. Ellie smiles and nods, "ok, I just wanted to have a chat about the baby" he says. Ellie looks down briefly before nodding. Ash smiles softly, "I've got an appointment for you in about a week just so we can make sure everything's going alright... but I wanted to talk about if you had thought about any kind of plan" he says. Ellie nods, taking a deep breath before answering, "uh... yeah. I don't really know what you guys are expecting with how this is going to go and everything, but I'm definitely leaning towards a c-section... just because it'll be less pressure on me. And I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up on bed rest towards the end" she says. We all nod, understanding where she's coming from. "That sounds like a good plan to have at the moment sweets, I reckon I'll have a chat with Luke a bit later and discuss a date that we could schedule the c-section just to make sure we're all prepared" Ash says, shooting a look to Luke, who nods, "that's a good idea" he says.

After some more talking, the timer goes off and Cal finishes pushing with perfect timing. The syringe is twisted off the line before another flush is done. The PICC is then clamped again while Cal gets the infuser ready. He twists the cap off it and waits for a bubble to form to make sure it's working before grabbing the line again and twisting the infuser line onto the PICC line. He quickly unclamps the line and he's finished. "All done!" he says triumphantly, sitting back to admire his work. Ellie chuckles, "well done" she praises.