Experiencing An IV Infiltration

Have you ever wanted to know what a water balloon feels like? Yeah, me either...but I got the opportunity to early on the morning of May 19, 2016. 

I found myself in the Emrgency Room at around 9:30pm because my PICC line wouldn't flush. Erring on the side of paranoid, I went in to make sure everything was alright, particularly since I had been experiencing some chest pain. I didn't get called into triage until after midnight where they asked me why I was there, took my vitals, had me tinkle in a cup (my worst nightmare), and did an EKG. I was sent back into the waiting room with promises of being called back soon for blood work. 

Two and a half hours (plus) passed before I was called back and put into a room. 

Did you see that? Two and a half HOURS! 

When I explained to the nurse that I had a PICC that wouldn't flush and torched veins on the top left hand (so don't touch it or the shoe may fly at your head) and the rest of my veins are scarred (so good luck and God bless on finding a vein), so got her handy dandy ultra sound machine. 

And STILL had a hard time finding a vein!

But she was able to get one, on the WAY interior of my elbow. Once in place, labs were drawn and the wait began...again. An hour later the P.A arrived announcing my D-Dimer test to be abnormal (normal range is nothing higher than 499. I was 552). It was declared that I needed a CT with contrast so off I went. 

The tech hooked me up to the infusion "pump" (think sci-fi syringe looking things that bottleneck into tubing that connect to your IV) and watched as the saline shot into my IV...it seemed sketchy, but he had it continue anyway. As it moved into injecting the contrast it does it at a high rate of speed and it warms the whole body. 

Not for me. 

It infiltrated (the contrast and saline shot into my arm tissue) and caused my arm to swell quickly. Because the test was still going, the tech couldn't get the tubing detached very quickly and only could raise my arm as it continued to swell snd fill. 

It hurt SO badly!

The test was aborted and I was taken back to my bed in the ER and they did a chest X-ray. They had me massage out as much excess fluid as possible and then put ice on it. The xrays didn't show a clot (yay) and so we waited for a PICC line nurse to arrive to deal with my PICC line. 

About an hour later he showed up (he had been my night nurse a couple of nights when I had been admitted. Cool dude). He injected my PICC line with stuff called CathFlo and it got me going again. My PICC runs like a country river now (thanks, Daniel)! 

Finally, at about 9am I was discharged and went home. So, if you're keeping track, I was in the ER, basically, 12 HOURS. Initially I was thinking it wasn't going to be worth it, we can just push saline at home until it works, but it turned out to be worth the co-pay to know that a pulmonary embolism was a VERY real possibility for me that night. 

Today (Friday) the swelling has gone down significantly, but my arm is still quite tender and bigger than normal. Being a Human Water Balloon is NO fun, even if it's localized to one body part! You become ACUTELY aware of how much you use your arms for everything and when they're both rendered virtually useless, it stinks.

Be mindful of IV placement (I'm kind of screwed in this department since I have virtually no veins to use) and do your best to preserve the site once it's placed. Let your medical team know ANY time the IV doesn't feel right. You have the right to ask for it to be moved!