Being a little PICC - y

Room with a view

Having ice skated our way here, most of today has been spent with "general admin" in preparation for the medical hard stuff.

I got a little tour of my room involving explanations of the various bits of equipment on hand - my favourite one being the touch on/off lamp where you just tap it on the side to switch it on and off. How cool?! Like I said, it doesn't take much to impress me! There is also a small fridge here although unfortunately I don't think it will be seeing much action in terms of chilled wine while I am here. As you can also see from the above pic the view from my room was a little foggy today!

I also had the pleasure of having a PICC line fitted. PICC stands for "peripherally inserted central catheter" which in simple terms is a fine tube pushed into and inserted  into one of the large veins in my right arm (just above the bend in my elbow) from where it is pushed up my arm, pass the front of my shoulder into the vena cava - one of the veins from the heart. Not really sure how long this is going to stay inside me but it makes it easier for bloods to be taken and drugs to be administered rather than having to have a canulla each time which can be a bit painful and at the rate I am going, I won't have any veins in my arm left!  The PICC wasn't painful at all, just a little bit sore but I think this is more from the protective bandage. 

During the fitment, I had a right mouthy nurse in the room going on about how she didn't think ultrasound really helps with fitting a line blah, blah, yak, yak, blah.  Not what I want to be hearing love while the doctor is just about to stick a piece of piping inside me!  To his credit, the good doctor handled her very well and having made a little bit of a complaint after about this, I think it was acknowledged that this was not the first time she had done this. Silly cow.  

This evening has just been a bit of a waiting game. When I got the go ahead to leave the building, Mat and I walked down to all the expensive furniture stores down Tottenham Court Road and drooled at all the ridiculously priced furniture on our way to the massive Paperchase store. I love Paperchase especially this branch! I could spend hours in there drooling at all the stationery and bright shiny things. As it was, I ended up getting some Christmas cards as my crafty plans of making them all this year fell by the wayside as I felt too unwell to do so.  I did debate about bringing all my bits and pieces to hospital but figured that from a clinical perspective, glitter is not really a good idea!

Also, I'm not usually a Corrie fan but got a little bit excited watching Coronation Street and the mother of all tram crashes! Woah, did you see it?! Money was clearly spent on that baby. It looked like a Hollywood blockbuster! At least I am going to be in all week to watch it pan out.

Anyway, feeling a little tired now and need to be strong for the nuclear blast chemo tomorrow so over and out for now.

Photo courtesy of vanessavanillaflavour