Day +34

This morning, I went to the hospital again to flush one of the PICC lines which experiences backflow again. The valve in the PICC line which should prevent backflow might not be working properly now.

Since the backflow happens almost everyday, the BMT nurse demonstrated to my wife the procedure to flush a PICC line. The nurse supplied normal saline solution and other apparatus needed to flush the line. The first step is to wash the hands, then opens the 10cc normal saline container, tears open the single use alcohol pad and syringe package, opens the gauze that wraps the PICC connector, then washes the hands again, extracts the normal saline into the syringe, cleans the PICC connector head with alcohol pad, connects the syringe to the connector, opens the clamp on the PICC line, try to draw blood first then pushes the normal saline into the PICC line, disconnect the syringe from the connector, clean the connector head with alcohol pad gain.

So now my wife becomes my private nurse at home, specializing in PICC line flushing only. She will be even more careful than the BMT nurse, because she will not only wash her hands but also take bath first before flushing the PICC line for me:-)

See you next post:-)