A Laundry List of Medications

Initially Karlie would get a morphine bolus when the nurses felt she needed it. Her need became more frequent so her body built a tolerance to it. It was becoming less effective so she was put on a morphine drip. It did help to keep her calm but it wasn’t quite enough.

Karlie was in a lot of pain and just moving her caused a lot of stress on her body. She was often given a bolus of versed before she was moved or before any cares were done. Karlie was only able to lay on her side due to her omphalocele. It was too heavy and she could hardly breathe when she laid on her back. The nurses would switch her from side to side every few hours. Even this seemingly simple move could cause her to get extremely agitated and desaturate. Soon after they started the morphine drip, Karlie was put on a versed drip.

Another hurdle we faced was pulmonary hypertension. Pulmonary hypertension is very common in babies with omphaloceles because of their underdeveloped lungs and heart defects. Karlie’s pulmonary hypertension was severe. Her lungs and heart were both working so hard. Pulmonary hypertension was one of my biggest fears because it’s commonly the reason these babies don’t make it. They tried everything they could to resolve it. She was given sildenafil around the clock and had nitric oxide administered through her ventilator. It was an uphill battle, but eventually Karlie’s pulmonary hypertension started to resolve.

I honestly could not name all of the medications Karlie required if I tried. She was on so many different medications and at one point it took multiple IV poles to hold them all. All of her medications were administered through a PICC line in her arm. A PICC line is not meant to be long-term and because Karlie was going to need it for the foreseeable future, our doctor recommended she get a Broviac line. A Broviac line is inserted through the chest into a vein that leads to the heart. This sounded scary but we knew it was what she needed. Karlie had her Broviac line for about 3 months and still has a little scar on her chest. I do wonder if that scar will be with her forever or if it will eventually fade away. She will have multiple scars regardless, each one with its own story.