Hospital Day 6: PICC Line

Yey!!! Pin Cushion no more!

As soon as my other angel, Annabel, started her tour of duty.. (Well, even when she was off from work, she called in to see how I was doing.. Bless her); and she found out they "used" me as a pin cushion, LOL.. She organised for the vascular access team (headed by Andrew Jackson, who inserted mine himself, a Consultant Nurse, to put in a PICC LINE (Peripherally Inserted Central Cathether -- will talk more about that in a bit).
She likewise arranged for my bed to be converted to a more comfy one, one that could be tilted one way and the other.. It was all so nice of her.

So a PICC line is some sort of a thin flexible hollow tube, called a catheter. One end is fixed to the upper arm and the other end sits in a large blood vessel inside nearest to the heart. There are two openings outside that can be used for when then take bloods and when they need to administer medications or IV fluids, well not that I need more fluids! Anyway, such a big relief, no more needles! Ever! I can even use these when I go for my chemotherapy, Yey!

Then they had to transfuse 2 more bags of blood. And they blocked one of the PICC lines! Oh I could pull my hair out right there and then! Asked if they knew how to unblock it, one of the nurses got a syringe with lots of saline fluid and, with TWO hands, attempted to push the saline in! If she'd been successful I'd have died of Cardiac Embolism!
STOP! Oh Please STOP! Do you actually know what you're doing? And she says she hasn't been trained! Then why attempt it?! That cannula goes straight to my heart, and all she can say was "Oh.."

Called the doctor on call, transferred the transfusion to the other port, and decided to wait for the Vascular Access Team the next day...