It’s February 14th!!!! Only 6 days until my last chemo! Only 6 days until this awesomely annoying PICC line is out of here ????! I am not going to miss you mr. PICC line.. he’s male, not sure why but I’ve just decided he is. Maybe because he complicates my life (no offence to Dan ? but let’s be honest! Lol).
How does he complicate my life? Well let me tell you all the ways! First try cleaning yourself… showering should be easy right? Hop in, go under, soap up, rinse off… boom you’re done! No, no, not all, nope. First I have to put on this sleeve that I bought to cover it. It’s kinda mostly waterproof. And it’s supposed to be tight so that the water doesn’t leak in. Imagine the material, sort of plastic, very hard, not really comfy-like. Once it’s on you would think I could just hop in a go? Well not quite.. because remember, it mostly waterproof. Nooo, I have to carefully enter into the shower, keeping my PICC line arm as far away from the water as possible. So I soap up, carefully, then rinse off – thankfully we have a shower that detaches (otherwise it would be a bigger ordeal). But washing my head is not quite so easy because firstly, putting my head under the stream makes the water go everywhere, so it’s kind of a balancing act of rinse and don’t get the arm wet. Once I’m all done I step out, dry off, then very very carefully remove the sleeve to make sure I don’t rip out my PICC line accidentally..
Bathing is not so complicated but still annoying. Mostly I just need to make sure I don’t put my arm in the water. Easier said than done! One day, in a chemo fog moment, I dipped my entire arm into the bath! I had momentarily forgotten I had the PICC line! I quickly rushed to the CCAC clinic to have them change my bandage. All was right again once that was done.
But let’s talk about the CCAC clinic… one of the requirements of having mr. PICC line is that every week I have the dressing changed. So every week I present myself to the germ, cold, flu infested clinic…me and my low immunity are big fans of this day. Rarely are they on time… so first I get to wait surrounded by sickness, and then, sometimes I get the “trainees”! Well…. imagine how enjoyable it is to have the dressing changed to begin with, but worse to have it done by someone who doesn’t know how?! 2 weeks ago I had a said trainee.. First they almost ripped the line right out of my arm, then they didn’t know how to attach or place bandage or do ANYTHING! I was freaking out and they knew it! Tomorrow will be the last day I will be going to the CCAC and if they try to have a trainee do my line change I will have a massive hissy fit and stomp out of there like a 2 year old!
I could go on and on… but this is getting a tad long and it is Valentine’s Day. So here is a cute little picture of my PICC line, you can imagine the fun of it ?. Oh and that’s only the end of it! There is actually 45cm going through my vein towards my heart! ?
I’ll always remember the CACC clinic!!! The drain day. OMFG it was so funny. You were so funny. I cannot even try to do the story justice. You just really had to be there. But you WERE there, so I need not say any more. Lol!!!! Sorry everyone else. You just had to be there.
Xoxo
Can’t wait to ring that fn bell. Sorry for any youngins reading this. You are allowed to swear about cancer.
Lmao! Yes!!! “Have you done this before?”