First the night nurse had to change one of my dressings. She did this around 11pm. It isn't usually any big deal, but I was asleep, and upon waking up, on verge of needing pain meds again, so it wasn't the happiest thing. But it went fine.
She also had to get blood for labs. The port that didn't work for this was again not working, even though the needles were changed. They could get fluid in but not out. She tried for a long time, then had another nurse try (unsuccessfully), then paged the IV nurse. Two showed up and were also unsuccessful, so they had to change the needle again (at 1am). Turns out some blood had clotted in a "safety valve" piece of the mechanism and that basically renders it useless for draws.
Once the new one was in they checked and could successfully draw fluids so they left. The nurse came back and COULD NOT DRAW ANYTHING. Got more tips and tricks over phone from IV nurse but nothing worked. This was upsetting - I had just seen fluid in the tube... why was this not working??
Well, the end of the story is phlebotomy came up around 2am to again do it the old-fashioned way. Today the IV nurse came up to check what I had, but hasn't been back. I hope new needles - and not a new port - are all that are in my future.
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