I do not feel well today. My stomach is going crazy. I feel feint. My head hurts on and off. Never extremely painfully but it never really leaves either. And on top of all that I am nauseous.
The tape which secures the end of my PICC line to my arm so that the end doesn't flop around and get caught on things had such strong adhesive that it pulled of skin. The PICC line itself has been causing me a great deal of irritation. It started to itch extremely badly after the dressing change yesterday morning. Last night it was difficult to sleep because the insertion site hurt/stung like crazy, and this morning it was bright red. Oh, and there is something that looks a lot like pus coming out of it.
To add to everything, my leg hurts. I wish I knew for sure if the infection is gone. My next scans should be in a 3 or 4 weeks. Infectious disease will schedule them at my next appointment on June 14th. Together, not knowing and waiting are difficult.
I am not a happy camper today. One my friends wants to plan a camping trip for the end of summer, so sometime in August. A bunch of us did this after high school graduation a few years ago and it was a huge success. He said he hopes I can come, but I doubt it. If all goes well my line will be pulled July 17th. Two weeks after that I see my surgeon for followup, and then probably mid August I will have another appointment with infectious disease. I will need to stay out of the sun for a while too, as I will probably stay on the oral Septra longer, which makes it extremely easy to burn. The whole summer feels like a write off. No fun for me. It sucks watching your friends move on with their lives while you can't do nearly half the stuff they do. I am jealous. I want to be healthy like them.
Well , the no fun part is not completely true. I will find other fun things to do. It just sucks that things are limited due to the bone infection. And my not feeling well today doesn't help my attitude either. My apologies if this was a stupid useless post to read, but I really needed to rant.
Showing posts with label dressing change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dressing change. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
PICC Line Dressing Changed
The dressing change for the PICC line was this morning. It went, well, it went, and not uneventfully. Thankfully the dried blood came off easily, although there is still one tiny spot of scab that is sticking on for dear life. The insertion site also decided to bleed again. Today's home nurse said it is because there is still bruising around the insertion site. The damn thing won't stop bleeding 'till the bruising goes away... who would have thought almost three weeks later?
Half way through the dressing change I was struck with some pretty intense nausea and dizziness. I was so light headed I thought I would faint. I asked my mom for a bowl in case I threw up (thankfully I didn't). Only afterward did I realize how silly I must have looked, hunched over a bowl, trying not to hurl while wearing a mask, and with my harm stuck out waiting for the cleaning stuff to dry! When the line was put in, the PICC nurse at the hospital put the guide wire in before she numbed my arm. None of my home nurses understand why it was done in this order, as, which is a reasonable, the arm should have been numbed first to avoid any pain (it hurt, a lot). I think that because of the way it was put in, I have somehow, unconsciously, become afraid of the dressing changes. I can deal with it being in my arm, I am fine with the dressing changes on my leg and looking at the incision, and have a really high pain tolerance (I can be at 5 out of 10 without needing pain meds, and then my 5 is a 8 to some of my friends). I went unphased by the puss coming out of the incision from my surgery in 2008, and was fine with the abscess on my shin and the bone fragment that came out of it in early 2011, but for some unknown reason I can't deal with the PICC dressing change. But anyways, the dressing is changed and I have a glorious week before it has to happen again.
In other news, I feel pretty shitty. I think that the ten months of antibiotics have really fucked up my insides. I would ask you to pardon the swearing, but I want to blog exactly how I feel, and how I feel is fucked up. In other words, lets just say that the bathroom has been my best friend this past week. Thankfully I see my infectious disease specialist this Thursday, so I can ask her for some advice. My biggest concern with the antibiotics is that there have been several c-difficile outbreaks in the region over the last year. Chances are I don't have it, but because I have been on the antibiotics so long, and have been to several hospitals quite a lot for appointments, I want to make sure that everything down there is as fine as it can be at the moment.
I have also been insanely tired, increasingly so since surgery, which I attribute to all the antibiotics and the shock of surgery itself. I feel like I am back to where I was last summer e.g. sleeping ten hours, waking up, eating and then going right back to bed. Again, hopefully infectious disease has some way of helping me with this.
And lastly, health wise, I slipped a bit down the stairs today. I caught myself, but the muscles in my leg do hurt more than they did before. The outside of the dressing on my leg still looks good, so I am going to assume that everything is o.k. and will as the home nurse to look at it in the morning.
Today was a nice day when I ignore how I feel. My mom and I went to a plant center and we bought some purple/black petunias, and some yellow ones as well. Then we took a nice long drive in the country (the Niagara region is beautiful, even though everything has already blossomed), and found a very, very hidden but still used cemetery. We will go there for a picnic one day as it is right beside a small park/hiking trail. We cam home and had lasagna, hot dogs, and chips for dinner (yum!). And now I am here, typing this all out and about to go read in bed. Hopefully I feel better in the morning.
Half way through the dressing change I was struck with some pretty intense nausea and dizziness. I was so light headed I thought I would faint. I asked my mom for a bowl in case I threw up (thankfully I didn't). Only afterward did I realize how silly I must have looked, hunched over a bowl, trying not to hurl while wearing a mask, and with my harm stuck out waiting for the cleaning stuff to dry! When the line was put in, the PICC nurse at the hospital put the guide wire in before she numbed my arm. None of my home nurses understand why it was done in this order, as, which is a reasonable, the arm should have been numbed first to avoid any pain (it hurt, a lot). I think that because of the way it was put in, I have somehow, unconsciously, become afraid of the dressing changes. I can deal with it being in my arm, I am fine with the dressing changes on my leg and looking at the incision, and have a really high pain tolerance (I can be at 5 out of 10 without needing pain meds, and then my 5 is a 8 to some of my friends). I went unphased by the puss coming out of the incision from my surgery in 2008, and was fine with the abscess on my shin and the bone fragment that came out of it in early 2011, but for some unknown reason I can't deal with the PICC dressing change. But anyways, the dressing is changed and I have a glorious week before it has to happen again.
In other news, I feel pretty shitty. I think that the ten months of antibiotics have really fucked up my insides. I would ask you to pardon the swearing, but I want to blog exactly how I feel, and how I feel is fucked up. In other words, lets just say that the bathroom has been my best friend this past week. Thankfully I see my infectious disease specialist this Thursday, so I can ask her for some advice. My biggest concern with the antibiotics is that there have been several c-difficile outbreaks in the region over the last year. Chances are I don't have it, but because I have been on the antibiotics so long, and have been to several hospitals quite a lot for appointments, I want to make sure that everything down there is as fine as it can be at the moment.
I have also been insanely tired, increasingly so since surgery, which I attribute to all the antibiotics and the shock of surgery itself. I feel like I am back to where I was last summer e.g. sleeping ten hours, waking up, eating and then going right back to bed. Again, hopefully infectious disease has some way of helping me with this.
And lastly, health wise, I slipped a bit down the stairs today. I caught myself, but the muscles in my leg do hurt more than they did before. The outside of the dressing on my leg still looks good, so I am going to assume that everything is o.k. and will as the home nurse to look at it in the morning.
Today was a nice day when I ignore how I feel. My mom and I went to a plant center and we bought some purple/black petunias, and some yellow ones as well. Then we took a nice long drive in the country (the Niagara region is beautiful, even though everything has already blossomed), and found a very, very hidden but still used cemetery. We will go there for a picnic one day as it is right beside a small park/hiking trail. We cam home and had lasagna, hot dogs, and chips for dinner (yum!). And now I am here, typing this all out and about to go read in bed. Hopefully I feel better in the morning.
PICC Dressing Chnage Tomorrow
PICC line dressing change in the morning. That will not be fun... the non-alcoholic cleaning swabs did finally arrive last week, so the insertion site shouldn't sting when it is cleaned, but the site has decided to bleed on and off last over the last 6 days. The blood, now dried, is stuck to a scab that wouldn't come off last week. The nurse wouldn't pull it off then because it hurt too much, but it has to come off tomorrow. My biggest dilemma until then is whether or not to eat before the dressing change. Somehow I think it doesn't matter... I will be nauseous either way.
The dressing for the surgical incision was changed to day. There was still some blood (at least, I hope it was blood) coming from one spot, and everything is still really swollen and numb. Fingers crossed everything continues to heal well. I am still experiencing some bone pain so I am hopping everything is going the way it should, what ever that way may be =P.
The dressing for the surgical incision was changed to day. There was still some blood (at least, I hope it was blood) coming from one spot, and everything is still really swollen and numb. Fingers crossed everything continues to heal well. I am still experiencing some bone pain so I am hopping everything is going the way it should, what ever that way may be =P.
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