Going home - soon but NOT YET!

The screw up was the wrong catheter had been put in, this meant I would not be getting out on Friday……..or Saturday. To make this long story short I was starting to feel much better and they scheduled me to have the center line pulled on Saturday mourning with the new Hickman Line installed at the same time. As it would be a procedure done in the operating room I was told not to eat or drink after 8:00 pm Friday night. Expecting the procedure to be done by 11 am.

Saturday morning came and I could not even eat my one slice of whole wheat toast with marmalade and egg beaters. (YUCK) so by 11:00 I was a little hungry. Lunch came (literally) and went I still could not eat. I was now really hungry. Around 2:30 pm the anesthetist came and described the procedure for implanting the Hickman. I signed the papers (wishing I had a lawyer friend) and he said it would not take long to do. He omitted one tiny detail I had the displeasure of finding out on the O.R. table

They wheeled me down to the O.R. and prepped me for the procedure. Before I new it the center line was out, the only way I new this was I could feel something warm running down my neck (blood) I had not felt a thing. A little pressure and the bleeding stopped pretty quickly.

The anesthetist rubbed iodine wash all over my neck and chest then they put a sterile sheet over me with a part of it cut out in the neck and chest area. He gave me a couple of local injections to numb the area and said I would feel a little pressure. This is the detail that probably should have been explained a little better.

If anyone is interested in the procedure type in Hickman Catheter in Google and read away. I will tell you this much. This was the most uncomfortable procedure I have ever had done to me. Not quite painful as I had the local for pain. A lot of forceful pressure in the chest and neck area. Not something I would look forward to have done again

That experience over I was wheeled to recovery and after an hour or so with the machines that go PING! I was back on the ward with a tube coming out of my chest looking something like the Borg out of Star Trek.

The reason for the Hickman was that it can be in for a long time and I needed it if I wanted to go home. Now that it was in that should be soon!


Picture shows the catheter going in to the chest. It then goes under the skin up to the stiches you see by my neck. (that was the uncomfortable part!) it then goes down into the subclavian vein and then just inside the heart.

posted by lostinthetriangle @ 11:49 AM Comments: 7