Bye Bye PICC Line

Yesterday I was able to get my PICC line removed, after having it for over 2 months. It's been nearly 2 months since I've needed a blood transfusion, so the doctor agreed I could get it taken out. What a relief! That thing required a lot of maintenance.

To explain, a PICC line is a "Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter". It is a small flexible tube that gets inserted into a peripheral vein, in my case it was in my upper right arm, and goes up the arm and to the chest until it reaches into a large vessel near my heart. An ultrasound was used to guide the line through the vein and into the chest. They also did an x-ray of the chest to confirm the placement of the PICC catheter. The procedure took about 20 minutes, and was relatively painless.

The PICC line had to be flushed twice a day with sodium chloride. Dad always did this for me because I couldn't do it with one hand. The dressing had to be changed once a week. Also, you can't get the PICC line wet, so at first I took baths. After about a month of baths I was ready for showers again, so my arm had to be wrapped up tight with plastic wrap and tape.

I'm just so glad it's gone!

One step closer. My next step is to try and schedule another PET scan, so we can see what's going on.