10 November 2006 PICC Install

Well, Marjie flew home last night on Emergency Leave and will be able to stay here with me through this whole ordeal.

Thanks again to my folks who unselfishly flew in from Tucson, AZ to be with me, take notes at Doctors meetings, cook dinners, clean house and give me moral support. I really appreciate that!

Mom and Dad will be flying back to Arizona after having passed all the information to Marjie.

Arrived at Chesapeake General Hospital Friday at 1130 for the PICC tube installation. It went very well and had little pain during the surgery.

The PICC was put in by a specially trained nurse, in an outpatient department on the ward. It was put in using a local anaesthetic, so that you do not feel any pain.

First, the skin in the area where the PICC will be inserted is numbed, using a special anaesthetic cream. When the skin is completely numb a needle will be inserted and then removed as the PICC is threaded through it into the large vein which leads to your heart. This did not take long and was painless. The PICC is held securely in place by a transparent dressing. I then had a chest x-ray to check that the end of the tube is in the correct position.

A PICC is a long, thin, flexible tube known as a catheter. It is inserted into one of the large veins of the arm near the bend of the elbow. It is then pushed into the vein until the tip sits in a large vein just above the heart.

The space in the middle of the tube is called the lumen. The tube has two lumens (known as double lumen). This allows different treatments to be given at the same time. At the end of the tube outside the body, each lumen has a special cap to which a drip line or syringe can be attached. There is also a clamp to keep the tube closed when it is not in use.

The PICC line can be used to give you treatments such as chemotherapy, antibiotics and intravenous fluids and feeding. It can also be used to take samples of your blood for testing. You can go home with the PICC in and it can be left in for weeks or months. This makes it possible for you to have your treatment without having to have needles frequently inserted into your veins. This may be particularly helpful if your veins are hard to find or have been hardened by previous chemotherapy treatment.

Biggest issue that I'm faced with is the fact that the dressing cannot get wet, which is going to make taking a shower even more difficult since I now have to deal with the PEGG feeding tube and now this.