Surgical Procedure (PICC)

July 16, 2024, at home

I arrived home from Delray Medical Center (hospital) around 11:40 a.m. today after arriving there around 8:15 a.m. for a surgical procedure. With mild general anesthesia, I endured the quick removal of a PICC line: a needle (catheter) in a vein in the left side of my neck with two ports in the left side of my chest. Part of the line went through veins in my chest, ending as close to my heart as possible.

This morning, I received an intravenous needle and port in the back of my left hand before being wheeled on a bed into the imaging room for the procedure. (See photo.) When I was transferred from the bed to the narrow, hard operating table, I immediately experienced severe pain. My back hurt so much as a result of my two spinal surgeries late last year.

Basically, the pain medications that they administered were: 1. intravenous Fentanyl through my left hand for my back pain; 2. general anesthesia through my left hand; and 3. local anesthesia as a bunch of needle pokes into the left front of my chest.

I did blank out for a short while during the "fun."

I was using the line (and different lines before that) for six weeks of daily intravenous antibiotics for a blood infection and for an infection in the bone and skin of my right ankle. The infusions were administered at home and in the hospital.

I had a similar line in my neck when I had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery in March 2022.

My blood infection has been diagnosed as gone, but I am currently taking oral antibiotics (at home), as per my podiatrist. He wants me to restart treatments in hyperbaric chambers to completely knock out my recurring infections, but at this moment in time, I don't know if that will be a possibility.