Pace gets to wear this non-tunneled catheter till later this summer. It helps them get the FEC Chemo into her. Fluorouracil is particularly hard on the veins, it causes the vein walls to collapse.
So if not for the permanent catheter the nurses would have to try to insert a catheter into Pace numerous times just to administer
one chemo treatment. In the last round of treatment they could try with the catheter six times before they got a stable strong vein.The catheter must be washed every day with a saline solution and an anti-coagulant so that the vein does not close up or that clots don't form causing what's known as "venous-catheter-related thrombosis."
Basically Pace gets to self administer warfarin, brand name "Coumadin", in order to keep blood clots from forming around the catheter. If clots happened and broke loose into the blood stream, she'd have a stroke, and not a TIA.
So Pace cleans the end dangling from her hand, and then injects herself with two different needles filled with either solution.
Then every Friday she goes to the doctor to get the tubing replaced. Only the white Butterfly stays.
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