Routine jobs

Firstly - WOW what a response to yesterdays post - THANK YOU.

Every time somebody says "if there is anything I/we can do" - the answer is "well yes there is, go give blood, or if you can't encourage someone else to go".  Job done!

Routine jobs today - PICC line care at the hospital.  Ella had a PICC line put in back in September and it has to be cleaned, and checked every week.  It's her lifeline in many ways, its where the chemo, blood and medicine go in and where they take blood samples out.   Lots of you will have seen it as the ends/lumens just dangle out of her arm in a rather disconcerting way.  They don't bother her in the slightest, but if you are not used to it.......

A PICC line is a long, thin, flexible tube known as a catheter. It is inserted into one of the large veins of the arm near the bend of the elbow. It is then slid into the vein until the tip sits in a large vein just above the heart.

The space in the middle of the tube is called the lumen. Sometimes the tube has two or three lumens, known as double or triple lumen. This allows different treatments to be given at the same time.

At the end of the tube outside the body, each lumen has a special cap or bung that can be attached to a drip or syringe. Sometimes there is a clamp to keep the tube closed when it isn't in use.