My PICC Line Tutorial

You might want to skip this post if you don't like cool pictures of medical crap.

You have been warned.






Yesterday I had an appointment with the doc to get the dressing changed on my PICC line. In case you don't already know, the PICC line is like a super cool IV that is a bit more permanent than what you normally get when you go to the hospital. It is inserted in my upper arm and allows me to continue my IV antibiotics at home. It also allows the doctor to take blood from it. It gives my veins a much needed break. So here's some cool pictures I took last night....

This is the actual PICC line going into my arm. The red stuff on my arm is just bruising left over from the procedure. It doesn't hurt any more. Yesterday the nurse removed the piece of gauze that covered the actual spot where the line enters my arm so now I have to look at it and it skeeves me out. It is all covered with a piece of tagaderm to keep the site protected from infection. The white thing on my forearm is a little sleeve that I wear over my upper arm when I'm not using the PICC to take my meds. It keeps everything from getting snagged on something.

This is a bucket that I use to keep my next dose of meds in. There are some alcohol wipes to clean the port before I connect anything to the line. The little canister holds the antibiotics. Then there are two syringes of saline to flush the line before and after the antibiotics. The syringe with the yellow cap is heparin that I put in last to keep any blood from clotting in the line. I have to administer everything every 8 hours...6am, 2pm, and 10pm. My whole life revolves around my next med time.

I have 3 more weeks of this to deal with. The doctor assured me that this will get mighty tiresome before it is all over....which is ok if it means I won't die. I can deal with it. The nurse took some blood for labs yesterday from the line, and that was pretty cool.....first time I've ever had blood drawn that didn't hurt at all.

I'm feeling quite a bit better now too. Virtually no pain...unless I yawn, cough, sneeze, hiccup, or burp.....something about breathing in deeply just moves things the wrong way. I am feeling like I have more energy too. I can't wait to be 100% again. Woo-hoo!