I don't even know where to start with this one!!
Well for those that do not know I am on a saline drip at home to keep my blood volume up. Well at first we had a picc line and we were just going to leave it alone until it was at the end of its life span which is between months and a year. This is what my surgeon told me your docs may say differently. Well a couple weeks ago we had notices blisters under my statlock. Home Care was NOT helpful, so Momma (we are now calling her Wonder Woman) did what she could with it. So come labor day I was laying in bed and I noticed a yellow looking color on my dressing no wear NEAR where the line goes in, I scratch at it couldn't figure out if it was coffee i had spilled on it OR it was inside the dressing. So Wonder Woman does what any GOOD nurse would do, take the dressing off because its now contaminated. We get it off and I have butterfly shaped blister drainage under my arm. She does what any good ICU nurse would do and I hope any nurse would do and she puts gauze that is STERILE under it, over it, taped it, again keeping it STERILE, checked for line infections, then she said we have to be super careful or we could pull the line. I give her this look like me be careful? have you met me? I am rough, and clumsy! So she taped and secured the lumens! The next day I called Superman! (yes i love super hereo's) They of course said you need to be sent to Interventional Radiology where you got it has to come out and since Wonder Woman already talked to him about Central Lines we opted to get one put in...
So last Friday I had a central line put in. Or a tunneled line, I am sure other places have different names for them. Before surgery they talked to me about a port, but I did not qualify for one because I frequently use my line. I was under local for the procedure and for me since I have so many allergies they had a crash cart in the room and ready to go. Surprisingly this didn't make me nervous it actually relaxed me. They of course explained the procedure and cleaned me up. So what they did was tunneled a line under my skin it starts right around my arm pit and goes up to my collar bone and then the tubing itself goes into my juggler. They stitched the lumens in place and of course watched me for a reaction. I did develop a rash laster that day. I am still healing but doing very well.
Not all POTS patients need lines or ports or even saline. Although some of us do, the volume from the saline drip has really helped give me my life back and has made me less symptomatic when it comes to POTS. My arm has been a bit sore and I can't raise my arm over my head for a month. In the long run it will be helpful and worth it. Now to get my rash to go away and we will be ok! :-D
