After numerous hospitalizations and far too many detours, I finally have a PICC line and insurance approval for home IV antibiotics. The next step was to play phone tag with the home infusion pharmacy and the home health agency. They had to coordinate care. I needed to get the IV antibiotics, and then home health had to setup a time to visit me to show me how to infuse the antibiotics. I could not start taking the antibiotics until home health visited me.
Normally, the IV antibiotics are sent out via a shipping company and delivered the following day. However, since this was my first shipment, the infusion company hired a courier company to hand deliver the supplies (and most importantly have me sign a stack of papers which gave the infusion company the right to bill my insurance). The infusion company insisted I needed to setup home delivery ASAP. I spent an entire day waiting at home, waiting for the courier to deliver my medicine. Finally at 6:25 p.m., the delivery man arrived. He quickly set the box of supplies down on the floor. Then he handed me paper after paper to sign. In a flash, the man was gone.
The following day, the home health company called to ask if I had received my antibiotics. I said I had received the shipment the night before. The woman asked if I have been on the antibiotic before. Yes, I have been on the antibiotic while hospitalized. The woman asked if I have done IV antibiotics at home. Yes, I have been on home IV antibiotics in the past. The woman said she would send a nurse out to my home.
An hour later, a nurse appears at my front door. She quickly pulls out a stack of papers and starts asking me questions. She panics when I say I have a PICC line. “Oh, I haven’t worked with one of those in years,” the nurse replies. The woman hands me a stack of papers and has me sign sheet after sheet giving the home health company permission to bill my insurance. She takes my vitals and records the information. She asks if I have been on home IV antibiotics before. I say, yes, I have. She gathers up her things and tells me someone will contact me later in the week to draw some blood work. She then leaves.
I am left dumbfounded. I have never been on this IV antibiotic at home before. I have never had this type of drug delivery system. In the past, I have had premixed syringes full of the antibiotic. I just had to push the syringe contents slowly into my PICC line. This delivery system required mixing a vial of powdered antibiotic into a bag of saline. The saline solution then had to be spiked and primed through an extension set. The gravity pump had to be set to the proper speed, etc. I know this is not rocket science, but I have never done this type of infusion before. I have a box full of all sorts of supplies, some of which I have no idea what the items are for.
Like I have been challenged so many times before, I take my need to YouTube. I type in some key words and up pops a video by Sutton Health. In the short film, a woman goes step by step on how to setup and use a gravity infused medication. The video is very thorough and informational. I breathe a sign of relief when the woman explains all the supplies needed. (I now know the purpose for every item in my box of supplies.) I am grateful for YouTube and this video upload. I am grateful some people took time out of their busy day to inform patients such as myself who have not received guidance on how to use their medication. Praise God!
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