Hello all, I’m having a Picc line put in tomorrow and am very apprehensive about the procedure, although it’s the right thing to have one. Any tips - apart from don’t look - or positive stories appreciated x
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@holly5 I felt exactly the same before mine. I cried in the car on the way to hospital. But in fact the whole procedure was absolutely fine. I told the team that I was feeling anxious and squeamish and asked them not to give me a running commentary about what they were doing. Then I shut my eyes, went to a happy place in my mind and let them get on with it. It was all over much more quickly than I expected.
Since then (I’ve had it for 5-6 weeks), I’ve taken the same approach with the weekly dressing changes and flushes, and they’ve all been absolutely fine and it’s always over more quickly and easily than I expect.
So: your fears are totally valid and understandable but I’m confident you will find the reality to be much easier than you imagine. Good luck!
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Thanks so much for the positive and reassuring post Hedgehog 
I’m like holly5, I almost begged my consultant not to give me a picc today! How do you feel afterwards, pain or discomfort wise and for how long? I’m having mine fitted 4 days before my first EC.
Thank you so much for this positivity Hedgehog! I’ll take this approach tomorrow x
I don’t recall being in any pain or discomfort afterwards - think I may have just taken some paracetamol. I had a chemo infusion the following day.
You do need to have a dressing change and flush 24 hours after it’s fitted, so for me they did that on the chemo ward. Then I go to my local community hospital once a week to have the dressing changed and the flush done. They also do my pre-chemo bloods every 3 weeks.
It takes a couple of days to get used to it but that’s just because you’re aware of it, particularly at night. But you quickly realise that you can just ignore it for most of the time.
The chemo nurses had huge problems getting cannulas into me for my first two infusions (ie before I had the PICC fitted) and I had stinging in my forearms when the drugs were going into me via the veins in my hands. I actually think I have long term vein damage from those experiences, so I’m hugely grateful to have the PICC as it allows safer infusions and saves hours of trying to warm up my tiny veins to get cannulas in! Also makes blood tests easier.
I haven’t had one, but seen a fair few put in ( and taken some out). To my mind, the local works better than it seems to during breast biopsies. You’ve got this, if you coped with the biopsies, I’d say its not as rough, by a long chalk (but I was surprised at how painful biopies were, manageable, but not nice, this will go down better).
I found the local anaesthetic was the worst bit. I had mine removed after chemo and have cannulas for my immunotherapy - last time it took them 3 attempts to cannulate me (I’m 34 and my veins are usually great!) so the PICC was a godsend really. A shower cover off Amazon (my GP wouldn’t prescribe) was handy. I did my flushes and dressing changes at home on the weeks I didn’t need bloods, to avoid another appointment