Thankfully my PICC line was taken out about two weeks ago, and I will hopefully never have to go through the experience that came with it again. However, I still have several large boxes of supplies left in my kitchen. I can't really do anything with them as I don't need them anymore. Yay! But I still wanted to blog about PICC lines for anyone reading this who is at the start of this journey. So here I go.
I am not so great at explaining what a PICC line is, so I will link you below to the Wikipedia PICC line page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripherally_inserted_central_catheter
But I can tell you about my experience here, and I can show all the 'lovely' things needed to take care of it in the following post.
I got my PICC line while in my hospital bed in the orthopedic ward the day after surgery. That's right, you don't even have to get out of bed or migrate to another part of the hospital is you were inpatient like me. Two specially trained nurses came in (right at lunch time may I add) and created what they called a sterile field. Basically, they put on protective sterile gowns, masks, gloves, hairnets, shoe covers, etc, and covered all of me except my head and my right arm in sterile blankets. The sterilness of the procedure even extended to the man bringing lunch - he wasn't, as the nurse said, allowed to contaminate her sterile field, so he has to squeeze through the door and walk on the other side of the room to give the other patients their lunches... don't know how that was sterile, but what ever floated their boat. everything needed was laid out on the bed side table, and one of the nurses estimated how long the PICC line needed to be (BTW, their estimate was right one!). The nurses used an ultrasound machine to find a good vein in my upper right arm - in my case the basilic vein, and then, while keeping the ultrasound in place, made a very small incision and placed a guide wire into the vein. Then my arm was numbed with lidocaine. Usually your skin is numbed first. I don't know why mine wasn't. A nurse inserted the actual PICC line and began threading it (to me. I know, that sounds gruesome). When they expect it is getting up to your neck they ask you if you hear anything funny. if you do the line went the wrong way, up your neck. At this stage they can still fix this. Mine did not, and moments later all 36cm of it were inside of me. The dressing was put on, and it was good to go as soon as an x ray was taken to make sure the tip of the line was in the right place. BTW, the x ray was taken with a portable machine - I got to stay in bed again. What awesome service is this!
The PICC line was very strange at first. It took a while to stop hurting, but After a few weeks I was even able to sleep on my right side. the only really difficult part was keeping the IV tubing and the bag of my IV pump from tangling with my crutches. Dressing changes were a bag of surprises. The first few went terribly with me almost fainting, although that could have been due to how the Tazocin made me feel, but the last few went well. The feeling when the tegaderm dressing comes off is amazing, and you almost beg the nurse to keep swabbing your arm with the chlora-prep swabs. Showering was also difficult, especially for me with both my right arm and leg not being allowed to get wet. My mom was amazing and washed my hair for me as often as my little heart desired.
My biggest problem with the PICC was actually the IV pump because I got several batteries which would not hold a charge, so for a while it was always a hit and a miss going out, and worrying about the pump shutting off on its own. I also had trouble with the chlora-prep in the last weeks or so, and I constantly had trouble with the PICC dressings and statlocks peeling off skin. Although the PICC line has been out for 16 days, the skin which was covered by the tegaderm dressing, etc. is still really sensitive and the actul place the line went into my arm is still healing.
Oh, and in case anyone want to know, I had a power-injectable PICC, and a CADD Solis Pump, which my nurses told me was worth 15 000$.
I am not so great at explaining what a PICC line is, so I will link you below to the Wikipedia PICC line page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripherally_inserted_central_catheter
But I can tell you about my experience here, and I can show all the 'lovely' things needed to take care of it in the following post.
 |
| These are picture os my PICC line shortly after I got home from the hospital. As you can tell, it bleed. It continued to bleed for several weeks, which is completly normal, as well as oozing some odd looking gunky stuff. |
I got my PICC line while in my hospital bed in the orthopedic ward the day after surgery. That's right, you don't even have to get out of bed or migrate to another part of the hospital is you were inpatient like me. Two specially trained nurses came in (right at lunch time may I add) and created what they called a sterile field. Basically, they put on protective sterile gowns, masks, gloves, hairnets, shoe covers, etc, and covered all of me except my head and my right arm in sterile blankets. The sterilness of the procedure even extended to the man bringing lunch - he wasn't, as the nurse said, allowed to contaminate her sterile field, so he has to squeeze through the door and walk on the other side of the room to give the other patients their lunches... don't know how that was sterile, but what ever floated their boat. everything needed was laid out on the bed side table, and one of the nurses estimated how long the PICC line needed to be (BTW, their estimate was right one!). The nurses used an ultrasound machine to find a good vein in my upper right arm - in my case the basilic vein, and then, while keeping the ultrasound in place, made a very small incision and placed a guide wire into the vein. Then my arm was numbed with lidocaine. Usually your skin is numbed first. I don't know why mine wasn't. A nurse inserted the actual PICC line and began threading it (to me. I know, that sounds gruesome). When they expect it is getting up to your neck they ask you if you hear anything funny. if you do the line went the wrong way, up your neck. At this stage they can still fix this. Mine did not, and moments later all 36cm of it were inside of me. The dressing was put on, and it was good to go as soon as an x ray was taken to make sure the tip of the line was in the right place. BTW, the x ray was taken with a portable machine - I got to stay in bed again. What awesome service is this!
The PICC line was very strange at first. It took a while to stop hurting, but After a few weeks I was even able to sleep on my right side. the only really difficult part was keeping the IV tubing and the bag of my IV pump from tangling with my crutches. Dressing changes were a bag of surprises. The first few went terribly with me almost fainting, although that could have been due to how the Tazocin made me feel, but the last few went well. The feeling when the tegaderm dressing comes off is amazing, and you almost beg the nurse to keep swabbing your arm with the chlora-prep swabs. Showering was also difficult, especially for me with both my right arm and leg not being allowed to get wet. My mom was amazing and washed my hair for me as often as my little heart desired.
My biggest problem with the PICC was actually the IV pump because I got several batteries which would not hold a charge, so for a while it was always a hit and a miss going out, and worrying about the pump shutting off on its own. I also had trouble with the chlora-prep in the last weeks or so, and I constantly had trouble with the PICC dressings and statlocks peeling off skin. Although the PICC line has been out for 16 days, the skin which was covered by the tegaderm dressing, etc. is still really sensitive and the actul place the line went into my arm is still healing.
Oh, and in case anyone want to know, I had a power-injectable PICC, and a CADD Solis Pump, which my nurses told me was worth 15 000$.
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