Swimming

This winter Ellie started swimming lessons at our local YMCA.

How, you might ask, is the same girl that didn't take baths is now swimming at the Y?

The answer lies somewhere in the land of technology, calculated risk and a healthy dose of normalcy.

The technological side came with our fine-tuning of a way to keep Ellie's central line cap and dressing dry even in a pool. We started experimenting last summer in Abby's sister's pool and had some miserable failures but since we have gotten much better and have a waterproof system that works very well.

It starts with a piece of Press n' Seal from the supermarket. We wrap that around her cap and press it to seal it. Water against the cap is the big risk for infections and s it does sealing food in your fridge.

Once the cap is sealed, we take a piece of tegaderm, a very sticky, waterproof film that comes from the medical supply company and cover her whole line, dressing and cap under a canopy of plastic.

Voila, we are waterproof!

We think that the biggest thing is that now Ellie's chest is finally big enough to fit a sheet of tegaderm onto her chest without any folds. Folds are bad and let water in. That isn't to say that the solution is fool-proof and we are quick to come home and change her dressing and cap before her next IV infusion but it reduces the risk and lets us get her doing things that other almost-four-year-old kids do.

It was time get her wet and this does the trick nicely even if Abby and I both keep personal 72 hour clocks after she gets wet to watch for central line infections.

We can now focus on getting her to let go of the pool wall by summer.

Guess What we did yesterday!!!

Yes, a last year we did a post about how we have decided not to let Ellie swim. But.. now she is two and that central line is not going anywhere any time soon. So, let the girl swim! Yesterday we loaded up and when to my sister's house for a short swim.
It was not a decision that we came to easily. We have been debating the idea for about two months. We have let her wade in the ocean but we were still very careful that her central line never got wet. When I was at Oley last month, I was asking everyone and anyone that that had a central line what they did when they swim. And I got pretty much the same answer. Cover everything as best as you can, and then change the dressing and cap when you are done.

She never really swam but she did leave the steps and walk around with us. Next time we will do it during the hottest part of the day and bring lots and lots of toys.

We also checked with Children's before we attempted this, and they ok'ed it. With the right precautions for her line, she is allowed to swim in clean ocean water and in a private pool that we know the owner of, so we know that water is clean. My sister's pool fits that bill and Ellie had a blast, so we will be back.