Restarting the Clock

Matthew has always kept his own timetable. He was born two months early, transported to Stanford six weeks prior to his scheduled surgery date, and made it clear to the doctors here a few weeks ago that he wasn�t ready to be extibated from his ventilator. Today was one more example of this trend. Matthew needs a surgically implanted Broviack line from which the nurses can draw blood and administer medications. A typical IV line will last you or I approximately 48 hours. Matthew�s IV�s, however, routinely fail after 12-24 hours. In fact, he has had nearly 20 lines come and go from his little 7 pound body at Stanford alone. Five were put into the history books just this weekend. He is actually running out of veins to access. Terri and I walked into the CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit) this morning expecting him to be scheduled for a short surgery. Instead, Matthew was running another fever over 101 degrees. Every time he spikes a fever the clock effectively resets a 48 hour countdown. Apparently a child should be without fever for that period of time before doctors can be sure that a Broviack line will not be infected by Staph. Faith and patience be with us.