Jaela was due for her PAM treatment on Dec. 19 and 20. It usually takes Primary Children's about 5 pokes and 3 people before they get the IV in so the nurse we like Shriner's said she wanted to try. The first time she tried the vein blew, but she got it the second try (in her head). We laid Jaela down for a nap and she turned her head so much that it pulled the IV out. The nurse called in an anesthesiologist to try. He tried twice and couldn't, so called in another anesthesiologist to help and both of them and the nurse couldn't get it in with another two tries. So six tries and six hours later they were pulling strings to get us a port placement surgery at Primary's.

We were nervous to have the surgery because they would have to have her completely asleep which meant she'd need to be intubated. She was intubated in September to save her but they have to stop her heart and if it doesn't start beating again there's not much they can do for her. But we took her to Primary's on the 21st to have the port put in. The surgery went fine but her recovery was a little slow. She got a high fever and her heart rate was fast so they kept her for a few hours longer. Afterwards we counted the all-too-familiar bruises where they try to start IV's. We counted at least 15. It took the Primary Children's anesthesiologists nine tries with her asleep to get an IV in. That's when we were absolutely sure we did the right thing for her.

This is a picture of what a port looks like in case anyone was wondering. It's much larger and less fragile than a vein so it only takes one poke to find it and doesn't go bad in two days like an IV.

This is where it is on Jaela. She has another bandage on her neck that you can't see. It's where the line ends.