Update from Annie ~

Jordy’s latest . . . Last night I was flushing Jordy’s PICC line as directed, and he began complaining of chest pains. You can imagine that this brought about a call to Doernbecher’s. The doctor on call told us to go to the emergency room at Salem for a chest x-ray. A few hours later and we were out of there with the x-ray on a CD. It is so amazing! The doctors in Salem and OHSU decided that we should follow up today in Portland. It appeared that the PICC line was in too far. That could cause the heart to become irritated. Today we made the trek up the hill to Doernbecher’s. They agreed after looking at the x-ray that the line was in too far. After debating how much to pull it out, Dr. Malempati (Jordy’s oncologist) suggested just taking the darn thing clear out. He is having it replaced with at port on the 24th anyway. Jordy thought this was a great idea. It allows him to shower without the aid of athletic tape and cling wrap! The removal process was easy so they sent him to the vascular lab for an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok.

In the McDonald tradition, there was a “little something that needed to be taken care of”. That is a very small blood clot where the PICC line had been. They are fairly certain that now that the PICC line is out the clot will dissolve on its own. It is lucky that they took the line out and discovered the clot before it plugged up the whole vein. Dr. Malempati is great!

Other news . . . Jordy’s white blood count has dropped some as expected. He just has to be careful not to get sick. All in all, his counts are pretty good. The doctor started him on Prilosec (another McDonald tradition). This should help his stomach, although, he ate two Arby’s sandwiches and a milkshake on the way home!

Annie