Just a few days after coming back from Children's Hospital I was in proud daddy mode. After all, Zachary had just received his brand spanking new PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line in his arm and was smiling at just about anyone who came within ten feet of his stroller. He was moving his arms more and more and in general making a great leap of improvement from one day to the next.

Later that day exhaustion overtook my son and he settled in to a good night's sleep. I went to bed that night feeling pretty good about everything.

Then that all ended the next morning when I got a call from Zachary's nurse at 6am. It seems that my nocturnal and over exuberant son decided to take advantage of his new found motor skills and promptly pulled the PICC line nearly out of his arm. The nurse calmly assured me that all was fine but that Zachary would need to make another day trip to Children's Hospital that morning to mend the problem.

Being that I was awoken from a sound sleep at 6am I can't be held accountable for my response. However, I'm sure of two things:
1. Whatever I said wasn't elegant and
2. I am pretty sure that whatever I said can't be repeated in this forum.

So back up to Children's Hospital Zachary went to undergo yet another line procedure. It wasn't even a week before that PICC was inserted and I was once again discussing this procedure with the same surgeon and same nurse practitioner. It's a good thing I bought the PICC Line extended warranty. This time however, the line is in a different spot (Broviac for all of you medical folks) and not as easy for Zachary to pull out.

So once again my son is back at The Children's Home resting, smiling and watching the video Shrek for the 15th time in a row.

Brian & Deanna
johnjoss22@msn.com