Picc line time

Although positive thinking is something I try to live by, so is honesty. So I'm sorry if this scares anyone who is reading this for reassurance - heres me being honest.

The last chemo was not good. Worse than that actually, it was bad. The veins in my hands have had enough. Now, I didn't have great veins to start off with, so it has always been quite difficult but last chemo was the final straw. I think pumping painful chemotherapy down veins which are already pretty damaged was never going to be pain free. But it was very sore indeed. The nurses said they've never seen me cry so much. The last of the drugs which goes in over 2 hours was 2 hours of gritting my teeth with a heat pad on my arm in an already too hot room.

A week and a half on, the skin on my hand is still very sensitive to the touch and I have only just become able to wiggle all of my fingers without wincing. I'm not quite sure why this has happened but I will be sure to ask the doctor on Monday.


So I've summoned up what remains of my inner strength and decided to have a picc line put in for the final 4 treatments. This is a tube which will go into my upper arm and be threaded through the vein right up to where it enters my heart. The chemotherapy will be entering a much larger vein than the ones in my hands, with a much faster flow of blood, so it shouldn't cause as much (if any) damage to the veins. I'm having it put in on Tuesday, the day before chemo. It will be inconvenient in terms of showering etc as I cannot get it wet but nowhere near as inconvenient as my sore hand/arm has been for the past week and a half.