It’s five o’clock in the morning.
We need to be ready for Hospital transport 🙄
It’s PICC line fitting day.
So I’ll have new plumbing in my body by the time we head home 😳
Our driver arrives at 6:30 – very calm, white shirt clean, and pleasant.
It’s a good journey to London, then we (obviously) head to Costa for cortados & toasted cheese sandwich 😊😊.
There’s quite a long wait for the PICC line plumbing team, and it’s very warm in the ward …
Maybe I need to rethink my Gruesome Holiday packing. Perhaps shorts and tea shirts?
The PICC doctor arrives, with blood on her hands and uniform… oh sorry, that’s wrong, I was dreaming 🙄
Left arm or right arm? That is the question? Which arm shall I pick, picc?
Apparently you should not sleep on it – so that means Right. But Right is my favourite 😍. What will the Nurse say?
She says OK – Left it is 💪 (my muscles aren’t quite this big)
So I’m stretched out on a bed with my left arm held out on a table, where it’s wiped with alcohol.
Note 1: I need to say here, that none of this hurt – except in my imagination 😂!
They check where my arm’s veins are (with an echo, baby spotting machine), and inject anaesthetic.
Next, they cut into my arm, find the vein, cut into the vein, and push a cannula, with a wire inside, into my vein … heading for my heart 🫣 see Note 1
It starts heading towards my neck, and then won’t go any further! see Note 1
They have a mini meeting and decide to stop … and start all over again on my Right side
So another anaesthetic jab … cut 🩸into 🩸my 🩸arm🩸… thread and push the cannula in … and it rapidly approaches my heart 🫀😧 see Note 1
But all is well this time, and after 30 minutes I’m up an out … with two slightly sore arms.
Hooray!!! 🥳 It’s done 🥳
We head back to reception for a small lunch (Costa again), followed by a drive home with an interesting man called Felix.
I sometimes worry about my imagination …