I was told by my Dr. that the Home health care company who will be caring for my PICC line would be coming out every 3 days. I just spoke to them and they said they come out once every 7 days.
How often is the dressing supposed to be changed? And how often does the line need to be flushed?
Should they be coming out more often then once every 7 days?
Posted by Florence1 (Member # 22960) on :
Mine is every 7 days.....if you have an appropriate sterile dressing.....
and my line is flushed every day either when having antibiotics or fluids.....if i have a day where i miss for some reason, i still flush with saline and heparin to keep the line patent.....
it takes a little time getting used to everything.......but it will all become clearer.........
Posted by Suzy50 (Member # 30466) on :
PICC line dressing should be changed every 7 days.
I always flushed my picc line twice a day with saline and heparin. Heparin is to prevent blood clots.
Posted by triathletelymie (Member # 26456) on :
Saline and heparin daily.
Dressing changes weekly.
~Tri
Posted by TS96 (Member # 14048) on :
Mine was every 3 days only because I was allergic to the chloroprep and tegaderm.
I believe if you can't see the site it's every three days. If you can see the site and it stays dry then it's seven.
Posted by vrtualchik (Member # 27927) on :
Thanks so much. This information really helps me feel a lot better about the dressing changes.
As far as the line flushing every day, well, now I am a little freaked out about that.
Is someone going to teach me how to do this?
I just realized that the gallstone prevention medication is prescription and not something I can go buy from a vitamin store. Since it seems like many people on rocephin have problems with gallstones is it OK to wait til I see the Dr. next time to get an RX for this?
The line is put in on the 4th and I see the Dr. on the 14th, can the gallstone meds wait until then?
Posted by Deb133 (Member # 18544) on :
Everbody gave you excellent advice. My daughter had her line in for 4 months. The nurse came out the next day and taught me everything. At first it seemed a little overwhelming but she was right by the 3rd day I never even looked at my notes.
They are only a phone call away don't forget so don't hesitate to ask them anything.
Dressing changes are weekly unless there is a problem. My daughter had NO problems whatsoever.
For showers we wrapped her arm in saran wrap. Well it was that real clingy wrap i cant remember what its called right now but its right in the grocery store. We double wrapped it and her arm never got wet.
I would say you can wait to get the script from the dr when u go for your appt or if you r worried you can always call the office and have them fax it.
FYI my daughter never took anything for her gallbladder and also never had a problem. Perhaps because she was a teen IDK but she was fine.
Not saying you shouldnt have it just saying u dont need it immediately.