Last week I noticed that the arm that had my pick in it was a little bit swollen around the line. I had my home health nurse look at it and she decided to have an ultrasound ordered to rule out blood clots. I didn't think much of it. Monday the ultra sound tech came and completed the the Doppler of my arm, armpit and chest. It was pretty cool to see all the veins on the ultra sound and I have to say it was weird having it done in my the comfort of my own home. I could get used to having tests done at home. As the tech was leaving she said that they would have the results in about 24 hours. I didn't think much of it. Most of the time these tests come back normal.
I didn't hear back from them the next day so I didn't think much of it. My last PICC line had been in my arm for 7 months and I remember that my arm was pretty sore for the first couple of weeks. I figured my arm was just irritated with the line and it would probably go down in a week or so. By Wednesday I noticed that the line was starting to bleed under the PICC line dressing. That night I received a call from the nurse telling me that I had Phlebitis of the superficial vein in my arm. She said that meant that my vein was swollen and that I shouldn't use the PICC line anymore.
On Thursday I saw my primary care physician, he came in talking about me having a blood clot. I was kind of thrown off with him saying that and I told him the nurse had just said that it was swelling. Well anyway he ordered for a blood culture to be drawn and then for the PICC line to be removed. I agreed that was probably the best solution because I didn't really like the other options. I had found out from my tube feed supply company that I could get I could get not just the feed bag but I could get it with a flush bag also. While in the hospital they would use the two bags and that's how they would run the flushes. I thought you had to have a special pump to use these bags but I learned this week that wasn't the case. I really wish I would have known that I earlier because if I would have had the two bag unit earlier, I wouldn't have needed the IV's to stay hydrated.
Anyway, I think we now have a good system figured out to help keep me hydrated and because of that I don't need the PICC line any more and now that it is gone, I hope I can start feeling better. I'm really glad that it was pulled because there was quite the growth growing on my PICC line. When my nurse pulled out the line we noticed that there was what looked like tissue wrapped around about 2 inches of the line. I didn't get a picture of it before my nurse pulled it off the line but she said that she hadn't ever seen anything like it before. In reference my last line, when it was pulled, the nurse said at that it looked like a brand new picc line because it was so clean. So to have this much growth on my PICC line this time after only two and a half weeks of having it, showed it did need to be pulled.
I'm sorry to say that Picc-o-line Pete is now gone but I wont lie it is nice to be down one medical accessory. It sure makes taking showers easier and I won't have worry about Kassia playing with it or trying to pull it anymore. It is one step in the right direction. :)
This what the Picc line looked like after it was removed. My nurse pulled the tissue off of it but when it came out that middle piece was wrapped around the line. A little scary that was on it but I'm blessed it stayed on the line didn't break off.
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