Senior Health Care – The Importance of Using Port Protectors for IV Therapy

For those who are not yet familiar with the IV therapy, here’s a very simple explanation for you. An IV or Intravenous Therapy is the process of using IV or intravenous fluid in order to transfer much-needed nutrients as well as prescribed medicine given by the doctor. Doctors highly recommend the IV therapy since it goes directly into the bloodstream. Unlike with normal digestion where the nutrients are broken down for body consumption, as soon as the nutrients coming from the IV passes by the bloodstream, it is automatically used by the body. This is one reason why you get the IV whenever you are sick and are in the hospital. The IV therapy also restores lost fluids due to dehydration or stress during getting sick.

Now that we have established the importance of the IV, let’s talk about the importance of using port protectors for the I.V. If you are not familiar with the port protector, if you look at the small plastic tube wherein the liquid coming from the IV bag goes down, you’ll see that there’s a small chamber-like thing that looks like you can stick an injection into it. That is what most people call the IV port. The intravenous port is where doctors,. nurses or caregivers, inject either an important medicine or perhaps additional vitamins that can help replenish the patient’s health. They just stick the needle unto the port and inject the substance inside. The port protector looks just like a plastic cap and it is fitted unto the port in order to keep it clean at all times. Not placing a port protector is dangerous, especially if the patient is near other patients with communicable diseases, since the risk of infection is high.

Most hospitals place strips of port protectors near the IV fluid bag, so if you need to replace the protector, all you need to do is take off a fresh port protector and install it on the port while throwing the old port protector away. This will ensure that the IV’s port is clean and infection-free at all times. For those seniors staying at home, there are companies that sell IV port protectors at a reasonable price. But of course, you need to check if these port protectors are indeed worth buying, since some of these products do not last very long. Some of the best port protectors I’ve used in the past are not exactly that expensive and you can buy a whole strip for a good price too. Nowadays, some companies also offer port protectors inside small boxes where they are being offered individually. They’re not like the strip dispensers though, wherein you can just hang them up near the IV, ready to use when needed.

So as you can see, the port protector is indeed an ingenius little plastic device that may have saved a lot of elderly patients from infectious diseases for a long time already. Whenever you need to take care of your elderly grandmother or grandfather whose actually having an IV therapy, don’t forget to use port protectors for their own good.

About the Author:

Jessica Greenberg is an caretaker and avid blogger from San Diego, California. Also a content contributor for Ivera Medical, she helps other caretakers by writing blogs and articles about how to deal with taking care of senior citizens with dedication and a smile!

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