Zoey had to have an alternative line run up through her femoral artery and into her heart last night. It's one of those procedures that's practically hum-drum routine when conducted in adults, but with preemie babies it's like trying to thread a needle with barn rope.
The alternative line was necessary because the lines through her navel increasingly become infection hazards the longer they're left in, so it was one of those procedures we knew was inevitable.
And it was also one of those procedures I just could not bring myself to watch. It's the damndest thing. I can stuff gauze into my wife's gaping c-section wound. I can ram a sewing needle into my own ear cartilage to relieve cauliflower ear. I can peel dead skin off my foot and slap it against my own face, as per "The Phantom of the Opera." But, I can't watch professional doctors make an incision in my preemie daughter and thread a line up her leg. It's a mental roadblock I just can't get past.
For her part, Zoey didn't care for the procedure, so the doctor kept upping her sedation medications to calm her down. Try as he might, however, Zoey just kept fidgeting and fighting, until the doctor had to resort to some serious knock out juice.
As he said later, after a successful procedure: "All that medicine could have put a bear to sleep."
I learned tonight that redheads make for tricky anesthesia. Although Zoey currently has no discernible hair color, my wife is a redhead, so Zoey may have tipped her hand, so to speak.
Zoey's doing well tonight, although she's back to fidgeting, and her fidgets always make me uncomfortable, because her fidgets make her look very uncomfortable.
This girl is going to have me so wrapped around her littlest finger.
Posted by Ryan at January 21, 2011 07:25 PM | TrackBackShe's a mightly little girl, eh? I'd like to meet her one day. She's inspiring. <3 Zoey, the Mighty Girl <3
Posted by: Danielle Teal at January 24, 2011 12:17 PM
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