Home I.V.'s

D

debs2girls

New member
Cheyenne has been on home I.V.'s for 3 weeks now with no end in sight. She is currently running a low grade fever and her cough has really increased...sounds wetter, too. She has been going to the doctor once a week since she was discharged, she goes again on Friday. I was just wondering how long do you typically do home iv's? How long can they be done?
How long can the PICC line stay in? Sorry for all of the questions, but I really want to understand.
Thanks in advance,
 
D

debs2girls

New member
Cheyenne has been on home I.V.'s for 3 weeks now with no end in sight. She is currently running a low grade fever and her cough has really increased...sounds wetter, too. She has been going to the doctor once a week since she was discharged, she goes again on Friday. I was just wondering how long do you typically do home iv's? How long can they be done?
How long can the PICC line stay in? Sorry for all of the questions, but I really want to understand.
Thanks in advance,
 
D

debs2girls

New member
Cheyenne has been on home I.V.'s for 3 weeks now with no end in sight. She is currently running a low grade fever and her cough has really increased...sounds wetter, too. She has been going to the doctor once a week since she was discharged, she goes again on Friday. I was just wondering how long do you typically do home iv's? How long can they be done?
How long can the PICC line stay in? Sorry for all of the questions, but I really want to understand.
Thanks in advance,
 
D

debs2girls

New member
Cheyenne has been on home I.V.'s for 3 weeks now with no end in sight. She is currently running a low grade fever and her cough has really increased...sounds wetter, too. She has been going to the doctor once a week since she was discharged, she goes again on Friday. I was just wondering how long do you typically do home iv's? How long can they be done?
How long can the PICC line stay in? Sorry for all of the questions, but I really want to understand.
Thanks in advance,
 
D

debs2girls

New member
Cheyenne has been on home I.V.'s for 3 weeks now with no end in sight. She is currently running a low grade fever and her cough has really increased...sounds wetter, too. She has been going to the doctor once a week since she was discharged, she goes again on Friday. I was just wondering how long do you typically do home iv's? How long can they be done?
How long can the PICC line stay in? Sorry for all of the questions, but I really want to understand.
Thanks in advance,
 
L

lightNlife

New member
A PICC can stay in for lengthy amounts of time. Usually with IV things get worse before they get better. Sort of a swinging pendulum effect. You have to get all the way to the bottom before you start to rally. My doctor will prescribe IVs for a month, and then if they're not working (as indicated by changes in PFTs) he'll give me a month off then we'll start up again at a different dosage. It's a frustrating cycle.

Is she on just one antibiotic, or a combination of several? Is she receiving aggressive airway clearance in addition to the IV therapy? It's all a complete package. Usually with CF you can't just focus on one set of symptoms. Diet, airway clearance, IVs, meds, etc. all of it needs to be managed very strictly during a course of antibiotics.

I hope things improve soon.
 
L

lightNlife

New member
A PICC can stay in for lengthy amounts of time. Usually with IV things get worse before they get better. Sort of a swinging pendulum effect. You have to get all the way to the bottom before you start to rally. My doctor will prescribe IVs for a month, and then if they're not working (as indicated by changes in PFTs) he'll give me a month off then we'll start up again at a different dosage. It's a frustrating cycle.

Is she on just one antibiotic, or a combination of several? Is she receiving aggressive airway clearance in addition to the IV therapy? It's all a complete package. Usually with CF you can't just focus on one set of symptoms. Diet, airway clearance, IVs, meds, etc. all of it needs to be managed very strictly during a course of antibiotics.

I hope things improve soon.
 
L

lightNlife

New member
A PICC can stay in for lengthy amounts of time. Usually with IV things get worse before they get better. Sort of a swinging pendulum effect. You have to get all the way to the bottom before you start to rally. My doctor will prescribe IVs for a month, and then if they're not working (as indicated by changes in PFTs) he'll give me a month off then we'll start up again at a different dosage. It's a frustrating cycle.

Is she on just one antibiotic, or a combination of several? Is she receiving aggressive airway clearance in addition to the IV therapy? It's all a complete package. Usually with CF you can't just focus on one set of symptoms. Diet, airway clearance, IVs, meds, etc. all of it needs to be managed very strictly during a course of antibiotics.

I hope things improve soon.
 
L

lightNlife

New member
A PICC can stay in for lengthy amounts of time. Usually with IV things get worse before they get better. Sort of a swinging pendulum effect. You have to get all the way to the bottom before you start to rally. My doctor will prescribe IVs for a month, and then if they're not working (as indicated by changes in PFTs) he'll give me a month off then we'll start up again at a different dosage. It's a frustrating cycle.

Is she on just one antibiotic, or a combination of several? Is she receiving aggressive airway clearance in addition to the IV therapy? It's all a complete package. Usually with CF you can't just focus on one set of symptoms. Diet, airway clearance, IVs, meds, etc. all of it needs to be managed very strictly during a course of antibiotics.

I hope things improve soon.
 
L

lightNlife

New member
A PICC can stay in for lengthy amounts of time. Usually with IV things get worse before they get better. Sort of a swinging pendulum effect. You have to get all the way to the bottom before you start to rally. My doctor will prescribe IVs for a month, and then if they're not working (as indicated by changes in PFTs) he'll give me a month off then we'll start up again at a different dosage. It's a frustrating cycle.

Is she on just one antibiotic, or a combination of several? Is she receiving aggressive airway clearance in addition to the IV therapy? It's all a complete package. Usually with CF you can't just focus on one set of symptoms. Diet, airway clearance, IVs, meds, etc. all of it needs to be managed very strictly during a course of antibiotics.

I hope things improve soon.
 
R

RTforJCinAZ

New member
lightNlife is right, PICC's can last a long time as long as they are properly maintained with weekly dressing changes and daily flushings. I will have had 3 weeks of home IV's on Tuesday. Trying to get back to my baseline from last Aug.

Anyway, the doc's will probably try and get a culture to see what her antibiotic situation looks like to see what will work on whatever bug is living in there. Sometimes it can be tough depending on what she cultures. We'll be prayin though!
 
R

RTforJCinAZ

New member
lightNlife is right, PICC's can last a long time as long as they are properly maintained with weekly dressing changes and daily flushings. I will have had 3 weeks of home IV's on Tuesday. Trying to get back to my baseline from last Aug.

Anyway, the doc's will probably try and get a culture to see what her antibiotic situation looks like to see what will work on whatever bug is living in there. Sometimes it can be tough depending on what she cultures. We'll be prayin though!
 
R

RTforJCinAZ

New member
lightNlife is right, PICC's can last a long time as long as they are properly maintained with weekly dressing changes and daily flushings. I will have had 3 weeks of home IV's on Tuesday. Trying to get back to my baseline from last Aug.

Anyway, the doc's will probably try and get a culture to see what her antibiotic situation looks like to see what will work on whatever bug is living in there. Sometimes it can be tough depending on what she cultures. We'll be prayin though!
 
R

RTforJCinAZ

New member
lightNlife is right, PICC's can last a long time as long as they are properly maintained with weekly dressing changes and daily flushings. I will have had 3 weeks of home IV's on Tuesday. Trying to get back to my baseline from last Aug.

Anyway, the doc's will probably try and get a culture to see what her antibiotic situation looks like to see what will work on whatever bug is living in there. Sometimes it can be tough depending on what she cultures. We'll be prayin though!
 
R

RTforJCinAZ

New member
lightNlife is right, PICC's can last a long time as long as they are properly maintained with weekly dressing changes and daily flushings. I will have had 3 weeks of home IV's on Tuesday. Trying to get back to my baseline from last Aug.

Anyway, the doc's will probably try and get a culture to see what her antibiotic situation looks like to see what will work on whatever bug is living in there. Sometimes it can be tough depending on what she cultures. We'll be prayin though!
 
U

Uli

New member
Sputum cultures don´t do the trick in every case...
Due to my sputum nearly every antibiotic should help except Meropenem, because all my different Pseudos are resistant to it, but:
Only Meropenem does still work, if I try to switch to something else I get high grade fevers, lots of sputum and coughing within 2 or 3 days...

So if you don´t feel better after 3 weeks of IV, maybe you should talk to your doc to change the medication.

Uli,45, Germany
 
U

Uli

New member
Sputum cultures don´t do the trick in every case...
Due to my sputum nearly every antibiotic should help except Meropenem, because all my different Pseudos are resistant to it, but:
Only Meropenem does still work, if I try to switch to something else I get high grade fevers, lots of sputum and coughing within 2 or 3 days...

So if you don´t feel better after 3 weeks of IV, maybe you should talk to your doc to change the medication.

Uli,45, Germany
 
U

Uli

New member
Sputum cultures don´t do the trick in every case...
Due to my sputum nearly every antibiotic should help except Meropenem, because all my different Pseudos are resistant to it, but:
Only Meropenem does still work, if I try to switch to something else I get high grade fevers, lots of sputum and coughing within 2 or 3 days...

So if you don´t feel better after 3 weeks of IV, maybe you should talk to your doc to change the medication.

Uli,45, Germany
 
U

Uli

New member
Sputum cultures don´t do the trick in every case...
Due to my sputum nearly every antibiotic should help except Meropenem, because all my different Pseudos are resistant to it, but:
Only Meropenem does still work, if I try to switch to something else I get high grade fevers, lots of sputum and coughing within 2 or 3 days...

So if you don´t feel better after 3 weeks of IV, maybe you should talk to your doc to change the medication.

Uli,45, Germany
 
U

Uli

New member
Sputum cultures don´t do the trick in every case...
Due to my sputum nearly every antibiotic should help except Meropenem, because all my different Pseudos are resistant to it, but:
Only Meropenem does still work, if I try to switch to something else I get high grade fevers, lots of sputum and coughing within 2 or 3 days...

So if you don´t feel better after 3 weeks of IV, maybe you should talk to your doc to change the medication.

Uli,45, Germany
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top