It is finished!

We made our last weekend drive to and from Landstuhl this morning. We are so relieved to have our weekends back, and after this week, Nathan will be done with his PICC line for good. He will be able to do upper body workouts and take a shower without wrapping a bag around his arm. He has appointments on Thursday with one of the knee surgeons for a follow-up and with the infectious disease doctor. The infectious disease doctor said she will probably be putting Nathan on a couple of antibiotic pills he will take daily until his next surgery, which will probably be about 4 months from now. We will see what she says Thursday. I'm not crazy about him being on so much antibiotics, but it doesn't sound like he has much of a choice. At least it's pills and not more IV stuff...

the happy patient this morning : )

you can see his picc line with the iv hooked up

daptomycin is the antibiotic in the bag hanging from the pump hook

sometimes they run the iv through the pump, but it typically gives them problems because the daptomycin is foamy and forms bubbles in the line, stopping the pump, so they often just run a straight drip

i've been "certified" to work the pump by the heidelberg clinic : ) and nathan and i often mess with the clamp that controls how fast the iv drips. many of the nurses at landstuhl set it up to go too slow for our taste, so as soon as they step out, one of us will slide the little roller up to make it go as fast as possible. 

shh. don't tell ; )