An eventful week

As you have already read, my PICC line has been testing my patience recently as this week it just drove me mad!  It started being sore last Friday when I visited the hospital and they redressed it.  When the district nurse came on Monday she changed all the dressings again and as she did the line came out about 2cm, she pushed this back in and carried on with putting the dressings on.  Overnight the weeping got even worse, seeping through the dressings and the entry point of the line was beginning to get swollen.  This got worse through the day and I eventually went to the hospital in the afternoon.  The nurse cleaned the area under the dressing, she put a barrier on and changed all the dressings again.

Wednesday was okay - in fact I had a lovely day! My best buddies Aisha and Sharifa came to visit me.  Sharifa has a gorgeous little boy who is 2 days younger than my little girl; so they had fun playing together and we enjoyed drinking tea and eating a yummy cake that my Mum baked.  But on Thursday the trips to the hospital began again! I popped in and again they changed the dressings and took a swab to be sure there was no infection.  It was now weeping from the entry point and it was getting really swollen.  The Nurse allowed my line to come out as far as it wanted to and secured it in its new position.  When the district nurse had pushed it in all it had done is push under the skin rather than down the vein, which is why it was so swollen.  They also changed the position of where the line lay to give my weeping skin a rest.

So on Friday I made my third trip of the week!  They decided to try and save the line by cleaning it with iodine and using a dressing for sensitive skin.  She wasn't hopeful that it would last the weekend, so tried to arrange that the inpatient cancer ward could look at it if needs be.  But they weren't happy about that!  So I would need to go to A&E if it got worse.   Overnight it got worse again!  Weeping everywhere and getting really swollen, so Saturday morning it was a trip to A&E.  I felt like a VIP as they took me through to a room straight away whilst everyone on A&E looked fed up at waiting for 2 hours.  I asked the doctor to take it out as this is what the chemo nurse had said to do if it was worse, he was reluctant and wanted to make sure I was really sure that this was what I wanted.  Even knowing that the alternative is to have a Hickman line in my cheat, I just wanted it out!!  I wanted to give my skin a chance to heal.  So after a week where I was at the hospital more than I wasn't I am hopeful that next week will be a bit less eventful.  Chemo round 3 is on Tuesday and I am assured that I will be alright to have the chemo through a cannula in my arm. 

Wish me luck Cx