Picc-Line ou Pique Life ?  

“Picc-Line or Pique Life?” Indeed, as a patient, I asked myself the ques­tion by doing a SWOT ana­ly­sis: strength, weak­ness, oppor­tu­ni­ties, threats. 

Some­times there is only a thread bet­ween health and mar­ke­ting… even a needle!

To begin with, I would like to tell you what a picc-line is and what it is used for. 

Doc­tors do not only use this tech­nique for can­cer patients. Indeed, health care per­son­nel also use it for patients who need to be connec­ted simul­ta­neous­ly to seve­ral dif­ferent bags contai­ning all kinds of pro­ducts. 

I want to make it clear that I am not a doc­tor or even an order­ly! 

I have been ill with can­cer since 2019 and it was while being trea­ted that I became inter­es­ted in exis­ting and upco­ming tech­niques. 

I lear­ned the defi­ni­tion of “Picc-Line” as recent­ly as a month ago, when I agreed, on the advice of my doc­tor, to have one ins­tal­led. 

I didn’t real­ly have a choice since I was cate­go­ri­zed as “seve­re­ly under­nou­ri­shed”. Per­so­nal­ly, I didn’t rea­lize what the pro­blem was, even though my fami­ly and friends kept tel­ling me. To tell you the truth, I even thought I had a belly!

When the doc­tor told me I should have one, I sear­ched the inter­net for what it was and couldn’t find any­thing spe­ci­fic about it. 

That’s why I deci­ded to write an article about this tech­nique now that I’ve been using it for over a month.  I sin­ce­re­ly hope that it will be use­ful to you. 

 

 

Here are some explanatory diagrams:

Picc-Line anatomie

First­ly, The Picc-Line is a 23,62 inches long cathe­ter. It finds its way through a large deep vein (the super­ior vena cava). 

Next, it is usual­ly implan­ted in the forearm or above the armpit

Final­ly, the exit point is the same for eve­ryone, howe­ver. It is pla­ced at the right atrium of the heart which is “a power­ful pump” to dis­tri­bute the injec­ted pro­duct as qui­ck­ly and effi­cient­ly as pos­sible. 

So much so that, on the doc­tor’s advice, I have to walk dai­ly not only to avoid losing muscle mass but also so that the pro­duct can be well dis­tri­bu­ted in the body.

The entry point will be on the left if you are right-han­ded and vice ver­sa. 

This tech­nique is used forlong term treat­ment ran­ging from 2 months, to much lon­ger. In this case, it is neces­sa­ry to replace the Picc-Line which has a limi­ted life span of 6 months. 

Picc-Line

The entry point allows for a sort of “mul­ti-socket” to be inserted.

Thus, care­gi­vers can insert dif­ferent bags into it simul­ta­neous­ly. And also draw blood. 

The main advan­tage of the Picc-Line is to limit the mul­ti­tudes of contact points with the syringe on the skin.

So it avoids infec­tions that can become serious like sep­sis. 

In addi­tion, There is a “small” 7,87 inches picc-line.

It has the same entry point, but it only works for a few days or even weeks. It is cal­led the« mid­line ». 

I invite you to click on this link which will allow you to view both forms of cathe­te­ri­za­tion. 

Pict-Line et Mid-Line
PICC-LINE sortie d'hopital

In the case of cancer, why a Picc-Line?

 

When the doc­tors acci­den­tal­ly diag­no­sed my leu­ke­mia (T‑type acute lym­pho­blas­tic leu­ke­mia) in the sum­mer of 2019, they were very encou­ra­ging in tel­ling me that it was hea­ling very well and qui­ck­ly.  

Howe­ver, the 2/3 months that was announ­ced has now become 2 years… And I still have no real visi­bi­li­ty. 

My lit­tle 75,98 inches body is making very resis­tant metas­tases that have had a nas­ty habit of sprea­ding to other organs.

The doc­tors have clas­si­fied my can­cer as stage IV, gene­ra­li­zed. My life prog­no­sis is com­mit­ted. But who says com­mit­ted doesn’t mean lost. It’s just going to be a lon­ger, har­der fight.

Deux poches PIcc-LIne

My Picc-Line car­ries two pockets.

One is nutri­tious. It has all the ele­ments we need, vita­mins, calo­ries depen­ding on body size.

This is cal­led paren­te­ral nutrition.

The other is hydra­ting. 

This sys­tem allows me to not lose weight when the nau­sea from treat­ments is too strong.

It also has a role of pro­vi­ding nutri­tio­nal ree­du­ca­tion for patients who are in severe undernutrition.

So I force myself to eat eve­ry day to keep my gas­tric sys­tem wor­king and regain weight. 

 

PICC-LINE, THE POSITIVE POINTS:

In my case, I consi­der this device to be posi­tive, although res­tric­tive; let me explain. 

- First, che­mo­the­ra­py des­troys cells, but it does not dis­cri­mi­nate bet­ween good and bad cells. It great­ly reduces our immune defenses and exhausts patients. That’s why many people die, because they become too fra­gile and catch the first infec­tion they are expo­sed to. 

Patients also die from infec­tions due to the mul­tiple acts of care. Indeed, the sligh­test prick, small wound, is an “entry point” for germs that pene­trate a very wea­ke­ned body. 

- Second­ly, as you often see, can­cer patients (but not only unfor­tu­na­te­ly) become very thin. For me, I lost 55,12 lb (I was not over­weight) bet­ween the time the disease star­ted and the time it was diagnosed.

So before I star­ted che­mo, I was alrea­dy in a wea­ke­ned state. The treat­ments made me lose even more my appe­tite, the desire to drink…

Che­mo creates a lot of side effects. In my case, I was very tired, I lost my hair and my eye­brows. I have regu­lar nose­bleeds. Like most patients trea­ted with che­mo­the­ra­py, I have nau­sea. I have lost a lot of weight and the habit of eating pro­per­ly. 

 

In this, the Picc-Line brings a vital help. 

Depen­ding on the num­ber of calo­ries pres­cri­bed by the doc­tor, it allows me to main­tain my weight at a level where there is no more under­nu­tri­tion.  

Above all, it helps me to resume, lit­tle by lit­tle, without anxie­ty, the habit of eating nor­mal­ly. 

THE PICC-LINE: ADVANTAGES BUT ALSO IMPORTANT CONSTRAINTS:

This pro­ce­dure is fair­ly new in that it has only been avai­lable for a few years.

The inser­tion of the “beast” is done by local anesthesia.

An anes­the­sio­lo­gist, ultra­sound tech­ni­cian or radio­lo­gist inserts the can­nu­la under ultrasound.

gros plan Picc-Line

He must be very precise.

It often hap­pens that he has to start the inser­tion again, if the vein he has to prick slips.

This was in fact my case.

After 1 month of use, I could measure the advantages and disadvantages of the Picc-Line. 

I am connec­ted to the machine, for 12 hours, taking into account that I will sleep during this per­iod (8pm to 8am). Howe­ver, I find it dif­fi­cult to move around, even though the serum hol­der has wheels because the wires that connect the bags to my body are very short. 

When I am dis­con­nec­ted, only my cathe­ter remains atta­ched to my arm. I am com­ple­te­ly free to move. 

Howe­ver, this free­dom has its limits. 

Indeed, as the inci­sion is made on the sur­face of my skin, any immer­sion at the level of the inci­sion is strict­ly for­bid­den. 

From then on, when I wash, I have to do my clean­sing in two steps. I clean my entire upper body with a wash­cloth (in front of a well-lit mir­ror so that no drops touch the dres­sing, which is per­meable). Then I wash from tor­so to toe in the sho­wer. So I can for­get this sum­mer about swim­ming in the pool or the sea. 

Once the treat­ment is over, I will not be relea­sed imme­dia­te­ly because the risk of relapse is not unli­ke­ly. It would be a shame to take me off the Picc-Line and put me on ano­ther one a month later. 

I will have to keep it on for ano­ther 2 months after my treat­ment ends.  

My car­dio­lo­gist wrote a pres­crip­tion spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for this. I’m on it until about August 15 if all goes well.

I will be com­ple­te­ly free of my cathe­ter around Octo­ber 15. 

The main drawback of the Picc-Line is practical. 

It impacts my dai­ly life great­ly limi­ting my free­dom of movement.

I nick­name it with this sli­my pun: the “Pique Life”. 

But I wan­ted to give it a mea­ning: I gain free­dom because I don’t have to stay in the hos­pi­tal. 

Seve­ral nurses take turns eve­ry day to put the equip­ment on me eve­ry eve­ning. Eve­ry mor­ning to remove it. And once a week to redo the entire dres­sing, which is a deli­cate ges­ture. 

Whe­re­ver I am, I need to make sure that a regis­te­red nurse is avai­lable at that loca­tion. 

That’s not all. I have to find health care per­son­nel who are com­for­table with the Picc-Line and that is dif­fi­cult, I can assure you! I have expe­rien­ced this and it has cau­sed me many slee­pless nights!

matériel médical

Specifically:

So in order to go away for a wee­kend for 2 days, I need to make sure befo­re­hand that there are nurses who know how to handle a case like mine.

Also, I need to make sure I am not too far from a hos­pi­tal in case of a sud­den infection.

If I was able to “check off” all the boxes, I then have to pre­pare the mate­rial, the right num­ber of pockets etc. and that takes up space in the trunk!

If I go on vacation or business trip for a week or more, I must :

 

  • Find a com­petent health care pro­fes­sio­nal who is avai­lable during the per­iod and willing to travel.
  • To be able to have all the neces­sa­ry pro­ducts deli­ve­red to me (bags, ste­rile mate­rial, tubing) by a near­by phar­ma­cy. A nutri­tion bag is very hea­vy and weighs more than 4,4 lb. So, if I leave for 2 weeks, I will need 66,13 lb of nutri­tion bags and 15,43 lb of hydra­tion bags.
  • Take my infu­sion stand with wheels.
  • Find a place that is equip­ped with elec­tri­ci­ty (very close to the bed) to connect the com­pu­ter that cal­cu­lates the flow of the pockets as well as the dura­tion of it.
  • To choose befo­re­hand the top garment that I want to wear or not because once the picc-line is connec­ted under the arm­pit, it is impos­sible for me to put on or take off a T‑shirt during the night.
  • Even if it is pos­sible to manage an outing to a res­tau­rant, by put­ting the pockets in a back­pack pro­vi­ded for this pur­pose, the ques­tion of clo­thing remains the same.
Picc-Line invisible jour
I have undertaken to tell you about both the advantages and disadvantages because it is necessary in the case of such a technique to be fair and objective.

 

Its main advan­tage is that you can be trea­ted at home and not in the hos­pi­tal. 

And it’s no small thing to avoid being in the hos­pi­tal too much in this time of pan­de­mic. And beyond that, hos­pi­tal-acqui­red diseases that I am more like­ly to get. Even 10 years ago, before the inven­tion of the Picc-Line, this could only be done in the hos­pi­tal. 

I am lucky enough to have a “new gene­ra­tion” cathe­ter that allows me to avoid as much as pos­sible the nume­rous injec­tions that the care­gi­vers would have to give me and the appea­rance of germs. 

All the medi­cal pro­ce­dures I receive are pain­less.  

As you can see on the docu­men­ta­ry pro­du­ced and pos­ted by LEVA LABORATORIES, the cathe­ter, as bul­ky as it is, is invi­sible when I am dres­sed. 

Also, I tried to be as clear as pos­sible about a tech­nique that can be defi­ned as revo­lu­tio­na­ry with its disad­van­tages but also with its advantages.

I invite you to watch the documentary “PICC-LINE & PARENTAL NUTRITION” produced and broadcast on the LEVA LABORATORIES website.

Docu­men­ta­ry to view at the end of this article.

Here, go direct­ly to the video tab of the LEVA website.

And on the you­tube chan­nel of LEVA here.

I don’t com­pro­mise on hygie­nic rigor and constant free­dom from pain because can­cer alrea­dy gives enough.

In this sense, the Picc-Line ful­fills the main qua­li­ties that I am loo­king for even if I do not remain stun­ned in front of it, the draw­backs not being negli­gible. 

In fact, I would say that it is accor­ding to what each per­son is loo­king for that you will have to make a choice. Pre­fe­ra­bly talk to your sur­geon. But in the end, only he will make the deci­sion to choose the best solu­tion accor­ding to your state of health and what you can bear. 

 

These notable inconveniences change my life but especially that of my loved ones. 

Obvious­ly, spon­ta­nei­ty is much more dif­fi­cult to imple­ment, as you will have unders­tood. You can no lon­ger decide to stroll around in the eve­ning because the health pro­fes­sio­nal has to come by at a cer­tain time to hook you up. It is impos­sible to leave at the end of the day on a whim to go on an outing or an impromp­tu wee­kend. 

The people who love me and with whom I live, see their dai­ly life upset. But moreo­ver they also accept to see their com­fort zone res­tric­ted. Effec­ti­ve­ly, less outings, no more slee­ping in, no more space for boxes at home, no more logis­tics for medi­cal deli­ve­ries. All this is added to the mul­tiple tasks alrea­dy per­for­med by the care­gi­ver. As well as the mul­tiple appoint­ments with doc­tors, and the exams to be done…  

 

I don’t for­get that I am very pri­vi­le­ged com­pa­red to the other mil­lions of can­cer patients in the world.

I live in a coun­try with one of the best health care sys­tems in the world and I have no shor­tage of pro­fes­sio­nals around me to help me heal. 

In my case, it is not plan­ned that I keep it all my life but only a few months. 

Yaakov-Lev battant

This is part of the foun­da­tio­nal expe­rience that I have been living for the past 2 years because I will not be the same man I was before I got sick.

I am cer­tain of one thing:  I will fight until my last breath to love, to live and enjoy life.

The Picc-Line being an addi­tio­nal ally in this bat­tle to the death with the disease.

William Sha­kes­peare wrote: “My body is a gar­den, my will is its gardener”.

This has never been more true.

 

 

Text by Yaa­kov-Lev Schneersohn-Salzman.

Pho­tos by Sarah-Lev Schneersohn-Salzman

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