Last time I updated, I mentioned that I was due to get a CT scan [properly, a CT Enterography] and that I’d update after that happened with the results.
Except things didn’t go exactly as planned. They couldn’t get an IV going.
An issue got in the way that isn’t related to Crohn’s, but often makes things difficult when it comes to tests or hospital stays. Basically, I have very small, very deep veins – lucky me. That makes the selection of viable veins for IVs less than normal, and often even when a tech can find one they still can’t get in.
When I was in the hospital for my emergency surgery, I had IVs in for almost two weeks in the same spots, because they struggled so much to place them at the beginning. I had THREE IVs – left hand, right hand, left forearm. One was basically my emergency IV in case the others gave out, which they did. Not only do I have scars on the backs of my hands from those IVs, there’s scarring around the veins, too. That makes it more difficult every time I need a new jab.
I have a lot of horror stories about the struggle to get a vein, with multiple painful tries, IVs that hurt the entire time they were in, blown veins, etc. My first colonoscopy was particularly bad, because the prep is dehydrating and of course that makes it even harder to find veins. That was the most tries I ever had for a procedure [8] though today was close enough [5]. And finally the tech today just gave up, because she was hurting me.
But I need the CT scan, right? So the question is: now what?
They have special IV techs who use ultrasound to assist in IV placement. BUT! I’m so special that the one time I did have one come to help me [my third surgery] even she struggled to get it, and it wasn’t a great placement. It hurt BAD.
There’s a possible option called a port, but I don’t think I get IVs enough these days to warrant one, plus I worry about infection. I’m prone to them thanks to my history – again, lucky me. And even if it is an option, there’s always the chance that my insurance will reject the request.
Right now I’m waiting to hear back from my GI doc to see what she thinks I should do. I’m willing to retry but I’m going to insist that they try the IV before I get drinking all that contrast. I can’t believe I drank three bottles of that crap for nothing, y’all. And the worst part of THAT was that it wasn’t the usual lemon/lime/vague citrus flavor, but some medley of mixed ambiguous fruit. It tasted like drinking a fluoride treatment.
…still better than barium.
