Friday 5 June 2015

Good-bye PICC!

My PICC line is out! Hurray! While the nurses informed me that I needed to hold my blood thinners and I wouldn't be able to do it this week, apparently that wasn't exactly true. If the INR level is under a certain point, the nurses can pull it, otherwise a doctor has to do it. I had my blood work this morning and then waited around for the results. It was, of course, too high for the nurse to pull so I had to wait for a doctor to be free.

I'm not quite sure what the difference is seeing as the nurse prepped everything, the doctor pulled it out, slapped a bandage on it and left. The nurse re-did the bandage, applied pressure, gave me the "go to emerg if it bleeds through and doesn't stop" instructions, gave me supplies, and sent me on my way. It's probably a weird liability thing but it still confused me.

The doctor who pulled it out is the same one that I've seen since my days at St. Mikes. He's finishing up his residency at the end of June, just in time for me to leave. It's kind of strange how his residency basically followed my lung transplant timeline. First at St. Mikes, then pre-transplant at Toronto General, then ICU, then in-patient, and finally out-patient clinics. Thanks for always being there for me, doc!

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