For two years my son Connor had a double lumen broviac catheter through which he received medication and IV nutrition. The two ends of the catheter were color coded blue and yellow to signify the size of each lumen. Over time Connor became VERY protective of his central line and gave each side a name. Thomas was the blue lumen and Ben the yellow. They were named after two of the trains in the Thomas the Tank Engine series.
On multiple occasions Connor needed his line replaced due to infection. Sometimes he required a temporary line to be placed to allow the infection to clear prior to the new broviac line being placed. One time, during the procedure to insert the temporary line the intensive care doctor, Dr. Chopra, recognized that the temporary line had blue and white ends instead of blue and yellow ends like his regular line. Having spent enough time getting to know Connor to understand that this would be a problem, Dr. Chopra took the time, while Connor was still under sedation, to wrap surgical tape around the white end and color it yellow so when Connor woke up he would have his Thomas and Ben. I cannot tell you how much that meant to a sick 8 year old boy and his parents. The Little Details make all the difference.
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