A PICC line is a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. Many chemotherapy patients have a PICC line put into their arm to make it easy to draw blood and give medicine without constantly pricking the patient. It's great. The downsides include living with tubes sticking out of your arm and also the slight risk of infection at home. The PICC line dressing needs to be changed each week. The PICC Line even has its own sterilized cleaning it. It is serious business! There is nothing really holding the PICC line in besides the dressing so it is critical that the dressing is done properly. My mom has had a PICC line in her arm since her first admission into the hospital. They took it out when she left St. Josephs, but put it right back in again at City of Hope. She has never had any issues. This last time, however, she felt some irritation when the nurse cleaned it. The irritation just recently turned into a blister about the size of an inch. The triage nurse on call at City of Hope does not think it is a big deal, but since my mom's white blood counts are dropping and infections are harder to cure, I emailed her doctor to check if we should do something about the blister. We went to a chemotherapy class a few weeks ago at City of Hope and the nurse emphasize that nothing is ever too small for chemo patients, so we are giving everything, even a 1 inch blister, attention!Below is a photo of the PICC line and dressing right after my mom had it put in. They also gave her a waterproof arm cuff to wear in the shower. Apparently some people also take it swimming!
