Sailing Along

I really have debated about whether to post this or not as I really do NOT wish to jinx myself. It being Friday, and the end of the week, I decided I should probably break the silence.

I went to the radiology department on Tuesday afternoon, where they (about 6 people!) did an ultrasound of my arm, found a vein and inserted the PICC line. I wasn't knocked out as hoped, but they used two bee-sting shots which completely numbed the area. In hindsight (despite the silent tears) they did the job very well, and having been sedated and wooopy wooo for an entire day would have been unnessecary.

I can't really feel anything when the drugs are going in which is fantastic. Because I take three infusions in total, it takes about 2 hours to complete each round, which I then do three times a day. I found this incredibly tiring for the first few days as it means going to bed at about 1-2am and getting up again at for about 8am. As well as this, one of the drugs (Ceftazadime) makes my eyes very heavy so it feels like I could sleep whilst taking it. I think I'm getting the hang of it now though and am employing different tactics to pass the time!

I won't post any pictures as I wouldn't want anyone to feel "the room spin" or cause anyone to faint (you know who you are!). I'm having the dressing changed next week so it will look a lot less dramatic then. I'll post a good diagram of what exactly a PICC line is, so to further educate everybody!




It goes into the arm and passes all the way up and ends just near the heart. My line has two bungs, one which is totally redundant but I think I could use it for bloods if I needed next week.

A normal cannula (or venflon) has the bung part and finishes at about the 'enterance to vein' part of the diagram. I think for this reason, they always succeed in collapsing my veins as it's a bit like them 'slipping out'.