Rehabilitation at Home

I recently volunteered to help a friend with IV therapy at home, and was amazed at how just ”getting back on the horse” I was able to reclaim old nursing skills. I was nervous, but willing. The discharging nurse went over everything with me, in the hospital room. Things have changed.

At one point in my career, I was the lead nurse in a chelation therapy clinic, doing 15-20 IV treatments a week. This was in addition to working at Whetstone Care Center, where drawing blood was a part of my job there. I was good at it.

Like any other skill, if we do not use it, we lose it. For my friend, she was a patient patient as I fumbled with holding two lines, mixing the medicine, unclamping and clamping, priming the tube, taking off caps, wiping everything with alcohol pads, starting the drip. No fancy IV machine. All manual. There were many steps in the process. After the 4th day, I was in a flow and things went more smoothly. By the 9th day, the end was near, and it all had come back to me, there was an ease of the flow of things and we could have a brief conversation while I was putting it all together. Before that, I had to have quiet so I would not miss the steps.

I have a great appreciation for nurses, more than ever, and for my own varied career. It takes great confidence and courage to care for others.

Another bit of wonder…because of anti-biotic resistant infections, more and more people are being treated with long term, high dose IV therapy. At Whetstone, I remember 3-4 months of IV therapy for serious wounds that would not heal, infected with E Coli, Strep and other things that do not belong in our bodies in large amounts. Many go into the rehab facilities for this, but there are options for home care, if you can find a nurse to come daily for your dosage.

That is not the only thing a person with a severe infection needs, however. Rest, enhanced diet with extra protein, making sure the body has a strong microbiome that will allow the anti-biotic therapy to do it’s work without wrecking the gut is super important. Taking extra multi vitamins at this time is an easy way to amp up your nutritional intake.

Consider yourself lucky…if you are well. Continue to build your immune system, walk every day, eat and rest well!