I'm FREE!

After 12 days with the PIC line I was finally freed on May 18 at 8:05pm.
41 cm of tubing and 2 stitches later...

Getting to that point was not easy. Let me back up a little, on Monday May 16th I had a follow up appointment with my Dr. this required new tests to be done to be sure that the bacteria was gone. Unfortunately these tests can take 48 hours to return results. The Dr asked if I would keep it in for an additional 72 hours. I about flipped!! I was upset because I've been out of work this whole time using up all of my paid time off and even getting an absence that will go on my "permanent record." Not only that, but it was a major inconvenience to not be able to wash my hair by myself! I had to be sure to wrap my arm in plastic and a cuff thing that was basically a shower cap for my arm that cinched at each end to keep it pretty water proof. But it was nearly impossible to just prepare for a shower by myself- the PICC was in my right arm and I am right handed.
I was just done.
After a few incidents with the IV: on one occassion the IV started bleeding all over the place, on another there was so much pressure that I couldn't hook up the medicine, and I had random pain which caused worry about a blood clot.
I had been counting down the days and May 16th was supposed to be THE day.
We agreed that he would try and speed up the test results and that 24 hours later I could get it out. The following day I called the doctors office to get the results. The culture came back clean however my doctor was out of the office that day and there was no one to send the order to the Home Healthcare nurse to remove the PICC. I had been duped. I returned to work on Weds and toughed out 8 hours of typing etc with the IV still in. Can you say ouch? It felt like having a dead arm, like when you get punched so hard that your arm just aches. On Weds morning I received a call from the nurse letting me know that the order would be given to the home health care to come take out the PICC that day. As soon as I was off work I started calling to schedule a nurse to come to my home that night. I was told someone would call me right back. 2 hours later and I still had not heard anything so I started calling the scheduling line again, after a hold time of almost 30 minutes I finally got through to someone. She said she was waiting for the orders to come through to which I replied they had been sent earlier that day. I was told that she "had to look into it" and would call me back.  When she called me back and told me that there was a 'miscommunication" and they were trying to find out where the orders were sent. WTH?! I got upset and told her that this was a major inconvenience and that something needed to be figured out. She said she would work on it and get back in touch with me. Well, to my surprise 20 minute later nurse Joe was at my door! I guess griping at the right people can really get things done.

Doc says it may be a few weeks before I feel 100% since I have been on some heavy duty drugs. The medicine was so strong it dried out my skin and hair pretty badly. Yuck. I hate to think about it, but if it's doing that to my outsides, what is it doing to my insides????????

This whole ordeal has made me extremely grateful for modern medicine, for health insurance and for family and friends that helped me get through it! I'm glad to report that I am infection free and feeling much better.