October 31, 2009

28 Days Later...

...I am de-zombified. PICC line was pulled this morning.

First day:

And the line after it came out this morning:



The line was pretty bloody under the dressing - After 26 trouble-free days, I really bled two nights ago. Have no idea what caused it. Thought I'd torn a stitch out, but that turned out not to be the case. Funny thing is that there is no bleeding when the line comes out. The vein simply collapses behind the retreating line. Unfortunately, this means that after a few PICCs in a certain vein, that one's no good for several years. I am going to have to press a little harder for a Port. I'll talk about it with my doc next month - she wants to see me on a monthly basis for a while. I have to admit that it's a good idea.

And so it goes. I have spent 10 weeks on IVs this calendar year so far. The long seven month period of good health between the March IVs and the October IVs was nice and makes that one-fifth of a year seem like a lot less.

It's nice to have the line out. I'll get an extra hour's sleep each night, can more easily get back to running and biking, and have full use of both arms again. Just in time, too. I have a fast and furious three weeks' of work left before things dry up and I'll need all my physical capability as well as mental.

Been on prednisone this last week, too. The IVs didn't have a huge impact, though I do feel better than I did and am coughing up a lot less gunk. Of course, I wasn't terribly sick when we started IVs - didn't want to get that way - it's kind of the point, right? But still...what a long road to mediocrity.

1 comment:

Christie said...

Looks painful. I was hooked up to an IV of iron once. That was a long night. So I can't even imagine what you went through. Hope all is well now.