Fixing the plumbing

I have a love hate relationship with my PICC line. On the one hand, it is inconvenient: it has to stay dry in the shower, I can't dance in the rain, it itches like crazy under the tegaderm dressing, it requires weekly dressing changes, it likes to drain gunky yellow stuff that hardens under the dressing and irritates things even more (and is gross too look at), it makes it difficult to get dressed when I am connected to my pump (24/7), it prevents me from being allowed at clinical, and the tubing gets caught on things and has a life of its own (find it trailing behind me, escaped from the unfashionable iv pump bag when I go out), it makes people stare at me in public (oh, you don't like looking at it? The thought of a tube running from just above your elbow to your heart makes you nauseous?  Well, its a good thing that you don't have to live with it than, isn't it!), there are infection/clot risks, etc. etc.

On the other hand, it is the saving grace that is allowing me to complete the semester (saving time, hard work and lots of great grades, and tuition), has allowed for the IV vancomycin that had vanquished the night sweats I have been having since Christmas and the low grad fevers, made it possible for me to sleep almost continuously through the night (only wake up 1-2 times a night now vs. every hour or so before), and makes me somewhat less of a walking zombie (yay for only sleeping 10-11 hours a day instead of 15!).

In my book, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. I therefore tolerate the PICC line and am thankful it is helping me "lead a normal (ish) life" until surgery next month.

So, I am, quite understandably,  a bit pissed off with the line when it decides to malfunction.

I am supposed to check for blood return every morning (take a syringe and pull back until I see blood coming out the PICC), and flush with two 10ml syringes of normal saline every morning before I attach a new IV bag for the next 24 hours.

Last time I had a PICC line (way back in 2012), my line stopped giving blood return. Most of the nurses ignored this, and said as long as the line flushes it is fine. So when my line stopped giving blood return on Sunday I thought nothing of it. I still tried every morning, to no avail, but I thought as long as the meds go in without a hitch, now worries.

Since the dressing change Saturday morning, the insertion site had been draining this weird yellow fluid. It hardens under the dressing and becomes super irritant. The drainage stops and starts for no apparent reason. By Tuesday morning there was quite a bit, so I made an appointment to get the dressing changed early (usually every 7 days, but can be done as required).

The nurse at the CCAC clinic wasn't pleased with it. She said its good its not pus and no pain or redness, but its not really supposed to drain. She also couldn't get blood return. She said policy is that if the line doesn't give blood return, it can't be used. She said I had to go to the facility that placed the line to get it taken care of right away. Problem is, I got it inserted at the children's hospital. That hospital is right across from my place (I can literally see the waiting room in my doctor's office from my living room). It takes me about an hour to get from my place/children's hospital to the CCAC clinic. Meanwhile, the General hospital is right down the street from CCAC. Not wanting to risk getting to Children's and being sent right back to the General because I am  over 18, I decided to stop in at the General first and see where they suggested I go. They said to stay at general, since Children's would like not see me (thank fully! Saves 1-2 hours of traveling on the bus, back and forth).

I checked in just after 2:30, and was called back from the waiting room at about 3:30. The nurse who I was assigned to was the same time I had 2 weeks ago on July 9th. She recognized me. Not sure if that is good or not. She tried getting blood return. As usual, flushing was fine, but no blood to aspirate. She said it is odd, usually a problem they only see when people have had a line for long periods of time, eg., months, But she also said vancomycin is known to be bad for blogging lines. Hence, the need for a PICC line... I still have the bruise from the peripheral line placed in the ER July 9th.

My plumbing wasn't plumbing as it should. Super easy to fix apparently! The nurse injected what I can only describe as the medical version of liquid plumr or drano in the PICC line, put a cap on the line and told me to come back in and hour. It is called CathFlo (Alteplase), a tissue plasminogen activator (and I know what that means now that I am a nursing student!).

Fast forward an hour, after sitting int he hospital cafe reading a book on 13th cenury England, I returned, and low and behold, we had blood flow! Plumbing restored!

Never have I been so happy to see my blood in a plastic tube, outside of my body where it should be!

To do things all proper, the doctor then saw me for all of 3 second, basically "How are you feeling? Nice to meet you! Bye'.

And I was out the door.

I went to Dollarama to pick up some more of the Burt's Bees Gud products. Only saw the conditioner the other day. Discovered body wash and body lotion today. Then took the bus home, stopped at shoppers to buy a pizza to eat this weekend, and nothing much else. Pretty nasty headache since I left the hospital just before 5pm. Totally ready for bed and hoping I get blood return tomorrow so I can start the vancomycin infusion without yet another trip to emerge (that's five times this year now.... enough to last me a life time).

Last thing before bed - here is  arm today. Bruise is fading slowly but still quite visible.

Also, you can;t see it but there is a dressing over the insertion site. Nurse used a different one than usual because it hurt quite a bit getting the tegaderm off today.