Hi Roxie

I had a PICC line in for 4 months. You will need some one to do sterile dressing changes, and they do need a heparin flush done per doc order. You can not get the area wet. It interferes with a lot of stuff. It is a good option if you need frequent pokes or have bad veins.

Try drinking a glass of water prior to getting a poke.

I had no problems with my PICC, but I am a nurse, and made sure that every one who did do my dressing changes made sure to maintain sterile technique.

I had to do my own infusions twice per week, of IV methylprednisolone, so that is why I had the PICC. A PICC is a 'Peripheral Inserted Central Catheter'. They usually don't like to do them for infusions that are only every week or two weeks, or less, they prefer to start a line. There is another type of line called a Midline, but it requires care almost as substantial as a PICC and has a shorter life of only 6 weeks.

My doc refused to put in a Port-a-Cath as it is permanent. Every foreign object we stick in our body is just one more reason for it to rebel.

I no longer need a line for any reason, so he was correct.

I did go thru a period of vasospasm every time they tried to get a line in, even the best nurses had a horrible time, and they wanted a PICC for the IVIG. They did a 'midline' for the first series of 5 bags, then I just endured the poke for 6 months. After that when they tried steroids, I had to do it at home and I could not poke myself, and it was twice per week, so I had a PICC in then for 4 months.