BMT: Aplastic (Day +7)

A vital part of Clark’s care revolves around his central line, aka double lumen broviac. This line is key to Clark receiving his medicine and having blood drawn. Without this, Clark would be covered in holes and bruises from ongoing attempts to put IV lines in his arms, legs, or anywhere else they might have luck getting a vein.  The double lumen broviac has 2 lines, one red and one purple.

A couple of days ago, Clark’s red line (the one they typically use to draw blood) started to feel sluggish. Instead of having an easy time drawing blood, there was resistance. And over the days it only became more resilient.

To prevent clotting in the line, Clark has a “maintenance” drip of saline constantly going into both line when there are no medicines being administered. The resistance in his line is most likely from blood clotting in his line, or from a medicine that leaves residue inside the lining of his tube.

Instead of waiting until nothing would draw at all, it is best to do something to clean it out ASAP. At home, when there are no maintenance IV lines pumping liquid through, we do a Heparin lock (aka “Heplock”). Heparin fills the line and helps prevent clots from forming. We would do a Heplock every 24 hours. In this case, we already had a clot or build-up, so we needed something stronger to clear it up. So last night we put tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) in his line for two hours. TPA is a protein involved in the breakdown of blood clots. This is only used in the line, and does not enter his body. Once the TPA has been in the line for approximately 2 hours, it is drawn back out with a syringe. So today, after using the TPA, his line is clean as a whistle!

Today was another great day! The nurses and doctors believe Clark is having very mild side effects of the chemo.  We’ll take that… and we are grateful for it.

So many of you have been asking about the plane that scared Clark. Well, here it is.  It definitely isn’t the friendliest looking thing, that is for sure. We think it’s the engine sounds frightens him.  No worries, say the word little man, and I’ll get Daddy to take this to a quiet farm up in Northern California, where it will live out the rest of its days playing in the fields and sunshine.