Sigh. One of these days I will have a happy post to share. Yesterday amidst all of the rash craziness, I also noticed that the bandage over my PICC was damp after getting an IV. I mentioned it to my doctor but he said it was probably just sweat and not to worry about it. I didn't really think that was what it was but to be honest I have been so overwhelmed with everything and this rash is just so bad that I just focused on that. Well this morning, I was getting my IV and I get 1000 ml at a time. At about 600, I noticed that my bandage felt wet again. I had Jeff come feel and he agreed that it was definitely wet and cold- not sweat for sure! A few minutes later, drops of water started dripping off the bandage onto the couch so I knew for sure I wasn't making it up. I pulled my bandage back to look and there was water coming out of the hole in my arm where the line goes in! Gross I know. So I stopped the IV and thankfully, my home nurse was already scheduled to come in a few minutes to change my bandage due to the arm irritation I have. Well she came and I showed her the wet bandage and she was like "Oh that isn't good." She checked the line but everything seemed well connected and there were no signs that anything was wrong. So she flushed the line with saline and it didnt seem to leak. Hmm. Well a second later, some reddish water came out of my arm- fluid mixed with blood. NOT good.
So she immediately called my doctor who was in surgery. They had a nurse go in and talk to him while he was in surgery and she relayed information. He said to pull the PICC immediately because obviously fluid leaking into my tissue is not good. I about panicked when the nurse said she was going to pull the line out right then and there at my kitchen table. She promised it would not hurt but I have bad anxiety every since the awful experience of getting my PICC in. She had me take a deep breath and pulled and out came the 20 inches of catheter. EW! Such a strange feeling. She checked it over and found a tiny hole about two inches up the line that was up in my arm. That was the culprit. So she bandaged the arm and put some betadine on to help my arm seal up. It now looks like this until tomorrow:

You can also see what the rash looks like on my arm. I think it is slowly getting better so it must have had something to do with the netting that was on my arm. It is hard to see in the picture but you can get the idea- lots of red, itchy bumps.

So now my right arm is PICC free but bandaged and recovering from a rash. On to the left arm. I was sent to the hospital this afternoon to get a second PICC put into my other arm. I had a lot of anxiety about it just because the first time was SO painful and took several tries. My nurse described the procedure as basically trying to shove something the size of a ballpoint pen up your arm so you can imagine the pain. The first time around I did not recieve any numbing medication. This time I was sent to radiology at Methodist and they used an ultrasound machine to find a vein. The nurse warned me that my vein and artery are very close together and that it was likely that she would hit a nerve during the procedure which would be very painful. Yikes. She did give me Lidocane (sp?) to numb the area and that did help for the inital poke. I could still feel it but not near like last time. The rest of the procedure was pretty painful though. She had to push REALLY hard to get the line in and the left side is a bit more complicated because you have to kind of bend the line around the heart. After the procedure was done, I was sent to have another chest xray and it showed that it was placed correctly. Then I could go home. :) I am home and resting now while getting IV fluids. My arm is very sore right now but that should go away in 48 hours or so. This PICC is placed up higher on my arm so hoping that will help not to have it right where my arm bends. That is the side I hold Ella on though so I have to get used to holding her on the right now. :) If you get a minute and would like to say a prayer that this PICC is a keeper and that my horrible rash heals soon, I could certainly use it. I will update more after my appointment on Friday and this time I hope it is with GOOD news!
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