posted
Ok...so heat is good for lyme, i.e. saunas, etc. So I tried a sauna, and believe that was responsible for my slow demise my skin condition under my tagaderm covering my PICC which then had to be removed and a gauze bandage and cream had to be used to try to heal it up but it never fully healed and this was just from ONE trip to the sauna!
Well, then luckily (or more likely unluckily) last week I found out my PICC was cracked and had to have it pulled and a new one put in my other arm...fun, fun!
SO...getting on w/my question. I guess no heat or water type exercises for me, not that my back or leg can really take much impact. But I'm even worried about a litle perspiration under the PICC site that causes moisture there by the insertion point.
Any advice?
Thanks,
jloisu
-------------------- jloisu Posts: 197 | From Seeing Lyme Green in Iowa | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I don't have any answers for you- just a concern also. I have a groshong catheter in my chest covered with tagaderm and I was going to buy an infrared sauna, then realized that the sweat & moisture could cause problems. How are folks with piccs or chest catheters doing saunas? Or are they? seems like a conundrum!
Posts: 85 | From Eugene | Registered: Jun 2005
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timaca
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6911
posted
My experience was different.
I made myself exercise, even when I felt awful. But, I never could move my body enough to make myself sweat.
I did do limited weights with my picc line arm. I did not do bicep curls.
I sat in my hot tub with my picc line arm floating on a intertube, so my arm would not get wet.
Somewhere (and who knows where) my picc line did pick up a fungal infection....most likely in the hub (the part outside of me where the extension connects to).
Would that have happened if I hadn't sat in the hot tub? Who knows.
I had my picc in for 6 1/2 months. And I was grateful to be able to do all that I did with it.
Timaca
Posts: 2872 | From above 7,000 ft in a pine forest | Registered: Feb 2005
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One thing that really helps is a "bio Patch." I think thats what it is called anyway.
It's a little cicler with a slit for the tubing at the arm entrance. It obsorbs moisture and is antibactirial.
Ask you infusion company to send them on over pronto
CaliLymer
Posts: 215 | From CA, USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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beachcomber
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5320
posted
One trip to the sauna caused my bandage to curl at the edges and it started to come off. When I saw my nurse she explained that the heat + moisture will cause the bandage to curl and come off. Also, your sweat is toxic and if trapped inside the bandage the toxins have no where to go but into the nearest opening, like the incision for the picc = possible bacterial infection.
I stopped using the sauna but I did take baths and did exercise to the point of just starting to break a sweat, then I would stop. I kept a spare sterile bandage kit at home just in case I needed to change it. My nurse preferred that I didn't change it myself. Fortunately, I never had to and never got an infection at the site.
Just be logical about this. Common sense will help prevent infection.
Posts: 1452 | Registered: Feb 2004
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ArtistDi
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 2297
posted
I have been doing sauna all along with a picc line, but my llmd and I discussed it--I leave my left arm out the door and the rest of me is inside. Have had the picc in since last June or July, and have not had any problems with sauna this way.
Posts: 1572 | From Hatfield, MA, USA | Registered: Mar 2002
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