After not having eaten any solids and having persistent vomiting for almost 3 weeks, Baby C was finally given Total Parenteral Nutritional (TPN) drips on Saturday last week, i.e. a day after her second surgery. Baby C had her first major surgery which was a ureteral reimplantation surgery on 5 May 09 and on 22 May 09, she had another major surgery, this time to fix her guts, a complication that arose from the first surgery.

The Kabiven TPN drips goes into the central venous catheter on her body, i.e. near her chest – above her right breast. The central venous catheter was inserted during Baby’s second surgery last Friday. Sutures were used to hold the catheter in place. The sutures will disintegrate by itself. Baby will have to be sedated when our surgeon removes the catheter before she is discharged from the hospital.

This central catheter and the bunch of tubes that are attached to it are driving me bonkers. They get intertwined whenever Baby moves about and especially when she sleeps (coz she moves about a lot in her sleep) and I have to lift her up all the time to detangle the tubes and to ensure that she’s not sleeping on the tubes… which always made Baby scream as she hates being disrupted from her sleep.

This bag of TPN which looks very much like milk costs a few hundred ringgit.  It consists of water, amino acids, minerals like calcium, iodin, magnesium, potassium, etc, a wide range of vitamins, purified soy bean oil, purified egg phospholipids and much more. I read that a person can survive up to 35 years just depending on TPN.

After a day on the TPN drips, the color on Baby C’s face turned pinkish and her lips turned red again. She also regained some energy and zeal and was almost back to her usual self again after being on the TPN drips for 2 days.

Here, the nurse (in white uniform) and Sister (in blue uniform)  are preparing the second bag of Kabiven TPN for Baby C.   That was yesterday morning.

Because the central venous catheter needs to remain in place for quite some time and cannot be contaminated, strict sterile techniques must be used during insertion and maintenance.

On top of Kabiven TPN, the doctor has also given Baby C albumin (for extra protein) drips, also through the central venous catheter.  The albumin drips are dispensed from a huge syringe attached to  the machine above her head. I was shocked when I found out how much the albumin cost.