PICC and mix

Mmmmm I love Pick n Mix!  M&S have started to sell little packets of traditional Pick n Mix sweets - flying saucers, foam bananas, milk bottles - sweetie heaven :) Anyway, I have gone completely off point!! It isn't Pick n Mix that I was going to talk about, it is my PICC line instead! Not quite as much fun or as tasty as Pick n Mix!

Mine has been testing my patience ever since I had it put in.  A PICC line, or peripherally inserted central catheter, is inserted into your upper arm.  A specialist nurse uses ultrasound to locate the vein to use in your arm, she then inserts the line (I didn't look at how she actually did this!).  The line goes all the way into one of the chambers in the heart; mine is 13inches long.  You then have an X-Ray just to make sure that it is in the right place.  Many cancer patients have a PICC line or some kind of long-term cannula inserted during their treatment; they help to save your veins from damage from having blood tests and cannulars inserted every time you have chemotherapy or blood.  They can stay in place for up to 2 years.  It appears that the majority of patients in my chemo ward have a PICC line, but I know that this isn't the same across all PCTs.

Here is what the PICC line looks like inside your body

Here is my PICC line - I apologise if you are squeamish!

So, as you may have already read the PICC line has already fallen out once when I collapsed.  I had it put back in to the other arm and this one has been testing my patience ever since.  Last week it began feeling a bit sore; I wasn't overly worried as the pain was below where the line goes in, so I knew it wasn't an infection with the line inside me.  It got more sore as the week went on, so I popped to the hospital on Friday and the nurse changed all the dressings.  She though that I was sensitive to the dressings that go over the line as it sticks out of my skin, so she also put a barrier cream under the new dressings.  Over the weekend it began weeping, which worried me as I knew that having no immune system could make this a worse that it needs to be.  The district nurse comes every Monday to flush my line with saline and to change all the dressings, so I knew that I would have someone to look at it

When she took the dressing of it did look really sore around the area where the line touches my skin.  She did the same as the nurse did; changed the dressings and put the barrier on.  But yesterday it had got even worse, it was weeping through the tubular bandage that holds it all in place.  I called the hospital and the nurse replied " how soon can you come in?" which made me think that it's obviously serious.  So off we went to our second home.  This time the nurse took a swab just to make sure there is no infection there.  She changed all the dressings again and pinched it around the line sticking out so it is not against the skin.  Fingers crossed all is well this time.  I don't want to have the PICC line taken out as the chemo that I am having can be really painful when it goes through smaller veins when using a cannula and I really don't fancy that! Also hoping for a week away from hospitals!

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