Hello!
I'm new around here. I got rsd from a fall where I fractured the 5th metatarsal on my left foot, bilateral ankle sprains, deep large abrasion of right knee, skinned palms of both hands, both wrists sore and injured right arm up to shoulder.

I just had a PICC line put in the upper part of my left arm. The lidocane did nothing for me. Basically it was like I had the PICC line installed with no pain relief. OUCH! The site still hurts. I sweat really bad at night and pee like crazy. I wake up dehydrated in the morning. I do aqua therapy 2 times a week and drink juice or Gatorade both before and after the aqua therapy. I have been fighting dehydration for quite some time. I got a virus and that tipped me over the edge. It got to the point where if I had enough to eat for the day, I couldn't get enough fluids in me. If I had enought fluids for the day, I couldn't get enough food in me. I no sooner got over the virus then I got a sinus infection, bi-lateral ear infections and a very red and swollen throat, uvula and tonsils. I was getting IV fluids at the docs office and then the veins were not co-operating. The doc finally said it was time for the PICC line and rehydration therapy at home. Yea! I did my first re-hydration therapy yesterday at home and it was nice to rest on the couch instead of in a docs office. I will do 2 bags of IV fluid twice a week and will adjust as needed when I go back to see the doc Friday.

Has anyone else had a PICC line for rehydration purposes or any other reason? Did it hurt to get the PICC line?

Thanks,
Naturelover
Gentle hugs to all and prayers for a low pain day.

I had a picc line in for about 6 months mine though was for food as I couldnt swallow as the nerve shut down so they used the piccc for hydration and nutrition. Mine didnt hurt going in but once the lidocain went down I was screaming in pain they then tried morphine for the first time to find out I was allergic to it and ended up in the cardiac unit for 10 days. Do you get yours cleaned once a week as they did mine. One thing that did happen is they must have hit a nerve that goes to my left 2 fingers my thumb and pointer finger as they both have weird sensations since the picc. They were like there are no nerves there ya right there are nerves every where. Getting it out was really weird and painful though. I finally got a port which helps so much more.

Sam

Sam,

Wow! Sorry you had such trouble with the pain killer. No lasting cardo effects I hope. Is your nerve for swallowing functioning yet? What is a port? How about the nerves to your hand, have they gotten any better? Why didn't they put a G-Tube in your stomach instead of doing TPN? TPN has risk associated with it that G-tube feeding doesn't. Feeding pumps are portable. They attach to you like a back pack. At night, you can attach them to an IV pole if needed and plug it into the wall. The battery recharges at the sametime you are using the feeding pump during the night. My son was on J-tube feeds for a year, then when his stomach started working again, we switched to G-tube feeds. From there, we used the G-tube for venting purposes. He got his G-tube out when he was fifteen or sixteen.

I will have the first dressing change Thursday. I eneded up taking some generic form of Vicodine. The PICC site is still painful so I'm taking 600mg's of Ibuprofin now. I stopped taking the Vicodine. My doc said she will leave the PICC line in until it absolutely must come out.

The techs who put the PICC line in said I rated up there as one of the hardest to get in. The line kept wanting to go into my neck. I thought for sure they would have to stand on their heads to get it in. They said they would have stood on their heads if that was what it took to get the PICC line in. LOL!

My doc said she will test out two different pain killers in her office and see if they work or not. She is documenting in my chart that the lidocane does nothing for me. The techs also injected Lidocane into my skin and that didn't work well either. Spotty at best. The techs said I had rough skin. The phlabotomist at my docs office said the same thing. I wonder why I have rough skin? I know I'm lacking muscles due to having had muscle atrophy.

How long does it take the PICC site to heal and stop hurting? I think I'm going to skip physical therapy until the site is either healed or less painful.

Were you told what kinds of things you could not do with the arm that had the PICC line in it?

Thanks. Gentle hugs.

I hope you have a low pain day.

Blessings,
Naturelover