Ray has been getting TPN, IV nutrition, 4 nights per week. He was only receiving TPN once per week but was losing weight, so back in August last year during an admission to NIH his IV nutrition was increased. During that admission his enteral formula was changed back to Peptamen. Because he’s not absorbing enough of what goes into his stomach he still needs the IV nutrition. 

Yesterday, when I went to hook up his TPN for the night his IV port just quit working. I’d drawn out heparin and then went to flush the line. At first it flushed fine and then it stopped like it was clamped. No amount of manipulating the line made any difference, I even reaccessed with a larger needle and tried with that. Nothing, nada, zilch. My guess is some sort of mechanical failure or kink in the line. 

So today we sit in the ER, expecting to be admitted in order to get interventional radiology to get an OR to hopefully replace the port. This won’t be an easy feat as Ray has many veins which are occluded or restricted in flow. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. As of right now he feels fine and is on his phone.