mom could use a few prayers

[eve]

patti

thoughts and prayers are with you and your mother-in-law

hang in there – you know you always somehow find the strength

eve

[willie]

patti I do not understand about PICCs as my wife got a port (Hickman line) last July. It has been in a year and there are no problems pulling blood. Your MIL will have to get educated on how to care for the line but once she does she will probably be as goos as any nurse she comes accross. Good luck to her.
Willie

[covergirl]

Patti,
If it is any consolation I have had a porta-cath for over a year with no problems at all. I am in the doctor’s office enough to get it checked out(shots of heprin(sp))to ensure its ok. When I hat ATG treatment at the transplant center, they insisted I have port. I resisted, but am so glad I did now as everyone I encounter with picc seems to get infections.

Now, fyi, when I get my cross & match for my blood tx, the hospital still get that blood from the arm. I was told regular blood techs cannot acces port, only nurses. If you must, insist they send a nurse. I do insist at the dr.’s office but usually go with the flow at the hospital.

Good Luck,
–cheryl

[patti]

Cheryl,

Thank you for that piece of information. Our biggest issue is getting blood at the hospital lab for type and crossing. There are no nurses there. I will make some phone calls today and check into this because if that’s the case we will change where we get typed and crossed.

Thanks for that major heads up!

patti

[maueenh]

Patti,

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Maureen

[Frankie]

I’ve had the same portacath for 10 years. Nurses are always amazed at how long I’ve had it.
I get blood draws, transfusions and infusions through my port. Since it is used often and being flushed, it is well maintained.

My hospsital lab will not/ cannot use the port.
The nurses in the Ambulatory Care Unit of the hospital draw blood for CBC and type and cross since that is where I recieve transfusions.

I used a home nurse for many years when I was on Desferal. That was a weekly infusion. Now, I have the same home nurse to draw blood weekly for CBC
since I am on Revlimid and no longer on the Desferal or transfusions.

Thank God for Revlimid (it’s been 10 weeks)…..it’s a miracle drug for me. And thank God for my portacath.

Frankie

[Terri]

prayers are with you, I hope all goes well for your MIL.

[kristyk]

Patti
I hope things go super smooth for your MIL.

I have a question. What is the difference between PICC and Port. My mom has a hone( not sure of spelling..is that a PICC??? Curious

Take care
kristy

[patti]

Hi Kristy,

A PICC goes in an arm vein. It is a thin silicon tube that threads through a vein and into the heart. There is a connection that is outside the body for attaching iv solutions/blood, etc to. A port is placed internal to the body at the collar bone and has a small opening that a needle is poked into for connecting to iv solutions/blood, etc. Ports are a much lower infection risk because they do not hang outside the body like a picc does. That is our #1 choice for mom because her white cells are so low. The trick is, we have to get her ANC’s to 1000 before a port can be placed.

I posted an update on her picc procedure at: goatrevolution.com/blog2/2006/07/08/chronicles-of-steele.

Things didn’t go as well as we’d hoped today.

Thanks for everyone’s prayers. Mom is home resting comfortably now.

Patti

[Author]

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