PICC line

I reported to the hospital at 1 PM to get a PICC line (a peripherally inserted central catheter) placed in my arm. Long delay while the tech had trouble getting one into the patient in the bed next to mine. A quarter of that guy's face was black — not black as in race; black as in black and blue — so I knew he was in bad shape.

My turn. The tech found a vein with an ultrasound scanner, then threaded the catheter in, roughly 2 feet of thin purple tubing. A "power PICC," they call it around here; it can take more pressure than the standard lines, so they can use it with pumps. On the first try the thing went in OK, but then they X-rayed my chest to examine the placement and the last 2 centimeters had curled up, maybe gone into a small vein. So she had to pull it partway back out, then re-thread. Not much more pain than a blood draw; no sensation at all in the vein, only at the entry point.

The line starts on the underside of my left upper arm and runs all the way to the cavo-atrial junction. That's the venous return to the heart. The idea is to deliver drugs and other things, like the radiocontrast dye for my CT scan, directly to a place where there's a lot of rapidly moving blood. This dilutes the medication immediately and lessens the risk of damaging the vein with the drug. It also stops me having to get injections all the time. A little green plastic fixture sticks out of the dressing, for an IV or pump hookup. I wear an elastic sleeve to hold the whole contraption in place.

Instructions include no golf, bowling, weight lifting, bow and arrow. Admittedly none of these were in my plans this week, but it's good to be warned. Also no duct tape. Not sure I want to know about why that one's on the list.