Today I was fitted with my PICC (peripherely inserted central catheter) line which will act as the tap for administering all the chemo and for taking blood samples over the next six weeks. This little tap (well, there are two taps actually) will poke out of the bicep on my right arm like little bag pipes for the next six weeks and whilst this will be a slight burden with regard to practicality (showering etc) it will be a huge benefit over the course of treatment as it will mean I won't need to be constantly attacked by needles in order to insert the drugs or to take blood samples which I'll need to have done many times.
An infusion tube connected to my PICC line.....
The procedure was fairly straight forward in that I laid down whilst being given a local anaesthetic in my right arm before having the line inserted half way up my bicep where they could find a good vein. From the insertion point the tube is fed further up my arm and round a bend to point it down towards the heart. Having the tube inserted felt slightly odd as I could feel the sensation of having a foreign body being pushed up my arm which was a bit disconcerting. I was also told at one point that I had to turn my head to the right and rest my head on my chest which would enable the nurse to route the PICC line down the correct vein at a junction rather than it taking a wrong route and going up my neck.
After the PICC was fitted I went for a chest X-ray to make sure the line was correctly aligned in the correct position. I've no idea what happened at this point, but I came pretty close to fainting and had to be wheeled back in a wheelchair after the X-ray. I don't think this was in any way due to the PICC being fitted, I think I must have just suffered a bit of a turn.
The X-ray confirmed that the PICC line was correctly fitted in the correct vein so the output tap was bandaged up ready to go for the following day. I rewarded myself for being a brave boy by having a MacDonald's on the way home.
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