E.R. Souvenir - Bruise due to IV Leaking

Bruise from IV Leaking into arm - today, day 7

After going to bed feeling perfectly fine, on 8/7/13 I woke up horrifically sick and ended up passing out.  Since this blog post is mainly about the IV that leaked into my arm, I'll sum up this part.  I was diagnosed with Acute Gastroenteritis and Dehydration.  The doc said I was the 3rd person that morning with the same thing, and it was only 9:00 a.m.   

Fun times in the emergency room - ha!

I'll admit that I hate IV's with a passion.  I always bruise from them, but I have never experienced an IV that was inserted wrong and/or came out of the vein, causing blood and the IV fluid to leak into my body.

IV that was leaking into my arm was removed and placed in my wrist

 

Because I can never have blood drawn, IV's or blood pressure (BP) taken from my right arm (due to nodes removed), they had to do everything from my left. 

 

After it had been in for a bit, the nurse took a second BP and I told her that it was burning terribly and also more painful than I've experienced before.  She decided since my BP was stabilized that she would remove the cuff.  

 

So the IV had been going for at least 15 minutes or so when a second nurse came in and after looking at my arm he said that he needed to check the back flow (or whatever) as he said it looked like it was leaking inside my arm.  He did and he was right.  He removed the IV and put another one in my left wrist.  

 

When I was finally discharged to go home, they took the bandage off my arm where the IV was leaking.  Mark and I looked at each other like WOW! as it was already bruising.  I didn't take pics then because I was simply ready to go home and go to bed.



 

Bruise from IV Leaking into arm - day 1

Day one after waking up from a few hour nap the bruised area was growing. 

Bruise from IV Leaking into arm - day 2

 

This is day 2 and while it was still painful, it didn't look too bad - yet.

 



Bruise from IV Leaking into arm - day 3

I woke up on day 3 and holy cow!  It looked like the bruise was healing, but then it started expanding into a new area towards my elbow.

Bruise from IV Leaking into arm - day 4

Yep, day 4 and expanding more and getting deeper red.  I think I have a shirt that color.

Bruise from IV Leaking into arm - day 5

Day 5 and it is not near as painful as it was, but the reddish area continues to expand.

Bruise from IV Leaking into arm - day 6

Day 6 and it is just as ugly, if not uglier.  Wait, I think Amanda Bynes tweeted this. 

Had my appointment with my doc this day and his first words were "OUCH!" and "that is one ugly bruise."  Yep and yep.

In short, I found out that the leaking was not just the fluid  as I thought (that gets reabsorbed into your body) but also blood due to the punctured vein or whatever it's called.  I thought it was just the fluid.  Silly me.  Anyway, he said that this could cause serious infections and proceeded to explain them to me.  Oh... well that didn't sound nice.  Thankfully there was no infection and it will take a couple months to heal AND that it may get a little bigger.  Great.  I just need to watch for some warning signs of infection, but I think all is well.   

Bruise from IV Leaking into arm - day 6, evening before bed.

 

Last night I decided to mark the end of the bruise going up my arm just to make sure it wasn't traveling any further up.  It is still working it's way around my elbow area though. 

 

It's now the evening of day 7 (pic up top is from this morning) and it is still ugly.  Thankfully it does not hurt like it did and is only tender and sore at this point.  On a good note, I'm feeling MUCH better from the nasty virus crud which ended me up in the E.R. to begin with. 

 

I guess they wanted me to go home with a memorable souvenir.  I would've accepted a T-shirt. 

 

Peace,

Rocki