PICC-Line Blues

The PICC-line Flush went just fine at the CHAMPION CENTRE (thanks, Ron). It's flushed, cleaned up and redressed all fancy in it's white lacey, slinky sheath.

It's driving me a little crazy, though. Today I can feel it in my chest. I asked the nurse if that's where the PICC line goes ... almost to the centre of my chest ... and she said "yes". It doesn't exactly hurt but it does feel very uncomfortable. I might have to phone and inquire. It's giving me the PICC-line blues. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I hate having it but I would rather have it than go through all the pokes and chemo injections (with my teeny, troublesome veins). Right now it kind of burns. I think I'm going to call them about it. It makes me what to reach into my chest and just rip it out. I just phoned about it and they'll call me back. (Update: They think it might be just part of the bones in my sternum catching on that white blood cells are disappearing and my bone marrow is reacting. That's also why I'm feeling achy and tender all over. That my PICC-line is in the same area as my sternum might be why there's some irritation there that I should just monitor and make sure I don't get a fever. They'll call me again tomorrow. If the problem worsens or persists, they have to do a chest x-ray to check the PICC-line and make sure it's in place. She guessed correctly that I was on the FEC mix of drugs by my side-effects and she explained that they like to use the PICC-line for that one because of the "E", which can really burn veins. She seemed surprised, though, by my describing a "burning sensation" in my chest at this point. Most likely, though, this is just part of how my body is responding to chemo. Great. Lucky me! Woo hooo!!)

I also asked about the tender skin and tissues I had yesterday and I was told that it was very common ... "normal". Funny, though, that I can't find anything about it in the literature except for the "tender scalp before losing hair" part. The list of side effects given to me by my oncologist lists all the usual ... nausea/vomiting ... hair loss ... mouth sores ... and then, at the end, there's "Pain". Just "Pain". I doesn't describe where or what kind ... just "Pain", so I guess that's what tender skin and tissue falls under. Peculiar.

"Cancer isn't for everyone, you know". I don't think it's for me either.