Go for the jugular?!

Back at Georgetown University Hospital for the second try.

Brayden finally had his ACTH test today (click here for description ACTH). It required lots of blood work and an IV line. It was successful and painful. They sent us to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) for the nurse to get a line. She looked him over, said she would not even try a couple of places because he had already been poked too much in those areas.

First poke, nothing.

Second poke, she hit an artery. Blood gushing, a bit of panic but quickly got several tubes filled with blood for the loads of blood work needed. Because this was an artery, they can not do an IV. They had to go for another vein.
The nurse said that she was going to give it one more try and if she did not get it they could book the OR to set up a line in the jugular. Brayden had a line once in his jugular and it is not pretty.

Going in for the third poke…Ok, fingers crossed, toes crossed, lots of prayers, deep breath and she got a vein. A little wiggle and lots of tape, Brayden finally had a IV.
He was given the ACTH and we waited thirty minutes for another blood draw. All they needed was 2 mls (that is a very small amount). It took 20 minutes to get those 2 mls, his blood was not coming out. Then we waited some more. We needed to wait a total of 60 minutes from the start of the ACTH. One last blood draw, 2 mls in 15 minutes.
The nurse pulled out the IV, band-aid on. Brayden was dressed and ready to go before the paper work was done.

One day we will have to tell you about the nurses but I am not up for that today.

Now we wait for the lab work. Probably will hear something the beginning of next week.

Brayden is wiped out and done with the day. He did amazing and handles it all with grace (not sure you could say the same for mommy and daddy).