Yesterday was the start of my final - hopefully - chemo session. Everything had gone well so far, but there had to be a little snag somewhere along the line didn't there, and somewhere along the line was exactly where it was.
The lovely nurse Jill had changed my dressing and drew back on the syringe to check blood flow. When she pressed to flush the line a mix of blood and saline was seen to have leaked from somewhere. So, the new dressing had to come off. A further gentle push on the syringe showed a leak on the PICC line about 1 cm from the entry point in my arm.
Before I could even think about worrying having to cancel the treatment or having to have a new line put in just for one session a specialist nurse was called. She quickly explained that a repair was possible and painless. Fortunately there was enough spare in the line inside my body to withdraw about 3cm, snip off the damaged section and fit a new valve. A cracking job, as they say, by the nurses at Weston Park don't seem to be fazed by anything.
Just one little odd event to report. At the very moment that the nurse snipped through my PICC line all the lights in the room went out! The four of us (myself, my wife and the two nurses) just looked at each other and then burst into laughter, with the rest of the ward wondering what we were up to!
Hope putting the lights out wasn't some sort of omen!
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