Evening
Hoping to get some advise please
Had my PICC fitted last Tuesday and now have bruising to elbow…no pain though is this normal? Am doing the what if?? thing and am thinking all sorts (really need to stop)…The district nurses are coming tomorrow mob handed to flush etc… but just a bit concerned
thanks in advance
Julie x x
Just bump this for you. I have a PICC but no bruising as such. What did the DN say today?
Love,
Christine xx
Hey Julie,
I also had my picc line put in last week, I’m having it flushed and dressing changed tomorrow and I’m soo glad. I coped with it really well to begin with but it’s started to ache and I’m holding my arm in that ‘I’ve got something in my arm’ stance!! It doesn’t hurt all the time, just achey, and I daren’t stretch my arm out fully in case it pings out lol!!
I’ll ask my oncology nurses about the bruising 
They did say to expect some aching in the upper arm and to try hot/cold compresses using a wheat bag. Also paracetamol to ease the pain.
I totally sympathise because I keep looking at it thinking it’s bound to have bled all over during the night!
Hope you feel less worried soon,
Sarah xx
oohhh Christine!!!
got to unit they could not draw bloods so flushed tried again…flushed tried again…flushed tried again…can you see where this is going???
they are going to ring me in the morning…I need to go back and they will try again…it flushes beautifully but bloods will not come …
sorry Sarah dont want to put you off and hopefully yours will be well behaved tomorrow let me know how you get on…
Cant understand why they chose PICC as have 6 more sessions left, am thinking he comes the hickman line …ALL ABOARD!!!
Hello,
Had my PICC in since December, sometimes it doesn’t want to give my pre-chemo bloods so the Distict nurse gets me to stand up, sit down and then cough ! It seems to do the trick, worth a try methinks??
Fingers crossed for tomorrow.
Hi,
When I had my PICC line they could push stuff in, but couldn’t get blood out, they said that the end was probably close to the vein wall, and when stuff was pushed in it pushed the wall away, but when they tried to draw blood out it sucked the vein wall in blocking it. I just had the blood taken from the other arm and the PICC was fine for the chemo. So much better than the canulas.
Jen
The stand up sit down and cough is definately going to get tried thank you 1234
Jen- the other arm is my special arm so no bloods from there unfortunately
Just had a call off at 1 for an xray to see why the little blighter is letting me down at the moment
julie x x
I hope they manage to get some blood from your Pic. The tip of the catheter could well be as Julie says, lodged against the vein wall. I had the same with my Hickman. The go upstairs downstairs, pull your shoulders back , cough, etc did sometimes work. The large majority of my bloods were taken by veins and the chemo given by Hickman. Towards the last session it appeared to have straightened up and both gave blood and took the chemo well. I didn’t trust it for many weeks but in the end was so happy I had it.
Fingers crossed
Cackles
Xray done and picc line in place beautifully (big sigh of relief)
Still no blodd and was not for playing nice at all…Oncology team are happy because flushes no worries just cannot get blood and cackles and Jen what a clever pair you are x x they gave me the exact reason you 2 explained
Just need to stop worrying myself and go with the flow…until bloods need to be taken x x
Julie x
Julie,
A bit late but might one in for next time - I found if I laid down on my picc side before the DN came - it gave blood no problem! Most of the time I had fun like you! It tended to come if they pushed in saline and drew back.
Good luck
Ax