posted
This is the 3rd time this has happened. I just got my i.v. reinstalled this morning to start my 4 day, 2x daily Rocephin treatment.
I'm soooooo frustrated. I had a normal successful dose this morning. Everything went fine. Then, tonight I went to hook up my saline to the line in my arm.
It will NOT push through, no matter what. I've even pushed HARD and it just won't go through the line. I tried another saline syringe. Same thing. It won't budge. I tried a Heparin. Same thing.
This happened last week once and then the dang thing came out during the same weekend and I got a huge bulge underneath my skin and they had to come out twice to fix it.
I take good care of it. I am careful with that arm. I don't get it banged around. I just don't understand.
This is frustrating to me because I do NOT want to be put on a different type of i.v.
Now that I'm done with my rants...what is causing the saline to NOT push through? Is there some kind of weird vacuum in the line? If so, how can I avoid it? I thought about pushing all of the saline OUT of the syringe and then hooking it up to the line, then drawing back on it a little bit to break the vacuum...but without asking my nurse, I didn't think it was a good idea.
So, I thought the piece that is on the end of the line where you hook the saline/meds up to might be messed up. I twisted it and realized that piece comes completely off.
While unattached to my arm, I took that piece (mine is blue) and hooked it up to the saline and it went through fine, so that eliminated my idea that it was the piece that you screw the meds on to.
So, either it's some kind of clot on the end of the catheter, or there's a vacuum and that scares me because I don't want to push air into my body - I won't be pushing *that* hard on it anymore to make it go in. Usually it goes in so easily.
Has anyone had this problem before? If so, is there anyway to prevent it or to fix it on your own without any harm?
I called the on call nurse and I'm waiting for her to call me back. It's Friday night, 10pm and I don't want anyone driving out here this late on my behalf, this happened twice last week and I ended up telling both on call nurses (why, oh why, does this crap always happen at night...or on the weekend, problems, questions etc.?) to wait until the following morning which ended up setting me back a whole day on treatment which means I technically only got 2 days off of being attached to this dang line.
The last time it happened, I thought it was some weird fluke...I really didn't ask "why".
Am I being too active on this thing? I still clean and do laundry, etc. but I'm careful with that arm still. Should I really be resting it almost completely?
When I first started, the first 2 weeks, I realllllllly took it easy because I was in physical hell and this never happened. As I've grown accustomed to the pain of this, I've gotten a little more head strong, being able to do the things I need to do, but maybe I really should ease up?
Or is this some mechanical flop?
Anyone care to weigh in?
(I know my posts are always really long but I have a lot to say! I type really fast too, so it's not like I'm sitting here for hours! lol )
-------------------- "~*~My smile hides my bite~*~." Posts: 506 | From N/A | Registered: Jun 2008
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feelfit
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12770
posted
nessa,
You should never force saline or heparin through yur line. You are right in assuming that *something* is blocking it. If it is a clot, you don't want to force it out and into your body.
The on-call nurse should have a 'special" flush to get rid of the blockage... let him/her work on it......
I know this stuff stinks. I hated my Picc line with a passion, totally freaked me out....but I never had a major problem with it.
Good Luck and don't worry about bothering the nurses, it's their job.
Feelfit
Posts: 3975 | From usa | Registered: Aug 2007
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feelfit
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12770
posted
Oh yeah,
I could barely do anything with my line in or it would bleed, or get blood in the line. Dry my hair, blood. Do the dishes, blood. Roll over in bed, blood.
It sucked. I was forever flushing w/hep.
Feelfit
Posts: 3975 | From usa | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
Blood in the line, I'm used to it now, the first time it happened (the very first day), I flipped out.
Now, I'm used to it...and like you, constantly flushing with Hep.
I will never tried to force anything through there again.
I'm upset because it's been an hour and no one has called.
I wanna go to bed but I don't want anyone to wake me up with a phone call. Once I get woken up, it's very hard to get back to sleep. Too much pain, and it winds me up, then I can't get back to sleep.
This crap is so complicated. Putting my medicine IN, should be the easy part. Now I'm even having issues with that. Grrrrrr.
-------------------- "~*~My smile hides my bite~*~." Posts: 506 | From N/A | Registered: Jun 2008
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feelfit
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12770
posted
Call them again. tell them you're tired and sick and scared.
feelfit
Posts: 3975 | From usa | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
She called back and thought maybe my body is recognizing it as a foreign object and blocking it off.
Maybe I should make it a habit of flushing with hep a few times a day, I don't know. Usually I am flushing the line because of the blood back up, but today, I only had to flush once.
I'm trying to remember if the days that I have to flush more because of blood back up are the days this didn't happen.
My normal nurse who I love didn't answer her phone so I talked to someone else.
Someone will come out tomorrow to help. AHHH!
-------------------- "~*~My smile hides my bite~*~." Posts: 506 | From N/A | Registered: Jun 2008
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lymeloco
Unregistered
posted
feelfit, is right. Never force something in, that doesn't want to go! Wait till you here from your doctor or the home visiting nurse.
This has happened to me, and was resolved. Good luck.
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posted
They are supposed to come out this morning and fix it. Ahhh, I've already missed a dose and then if they come too late this AM, it means I'll be up all night doing a dose.
Now my husband is griping because he thinks this treatment is going to be unsuccessful because this has happened 3 times. I told him I'm not completely missing doses, I'm going extra days to finish them and it's not my fault!
-------------------- "~*~My smile hides my bite~*~." Posts: 506 | From N/A | Registered: Jun 2008
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I have alot of experience with PICC lines and had alot of trouble with mine-can your husband help you at all-if so I will give you suggestions to draw the syringe back until you see blood and then the heparin should go through fine-and then the medicine-
I do not know if you know this or not-I will just tell you anyway
If your husband can help you can lie down-a recliner works best-raise your arm up by your head and then point your head to the opposite side-completely look the other way-and then cough-and see if he can get the blood drawn back-it might take you several coughs but it always worked for me when my nurses could not get a blood return-which was often-and I had 3 lines in my PICC.
Just a suggestion-hope it helps
Posts: 303 | From Jekyll Island, GA | Registered: Sep 2008
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