Living with a Hickman line

For those of you who don't know, a Hickman line is a very long thin tube inserted into a vein in your chest and tunnelled through to one of the chambers into your heart (i believe). Two tubes then dangle out of your chest down to the bottom of your waist - so yes they are very long and can get in the way sometimes! Here's a picture...

The doctors decided to take the port out my arm due to my chemo being more complicated.

The port in my arm looked like this:

(it's the small bump in my arm) and essentially it does the same job as the Hickman line the only difference is that the port has to be accessed by needle every time you need to use it and can only have one tube in it at a time - it's also hidden under the skin which in many cases is a huge bonus.

When i first got my Hickman line put in it looked like this: (sorry for the blood in advance)

I woke up feeling like i had been kicked in the chest (multiple times) but i also felt it wasn't as big as i thought it would be. Little did i know the tube had been wrapped up in bandages and when i took them off i would get a huge surprise as to how long they actually are.

Day to day i don't really realise them being there. The only times i notice them are when:

1. I'm sleeping and the two massive clamps (stopping blood from coming out) dig into my side. They wake me up regularly because both of the clamps sit just below my rib cage and when you sleep on the same side that your Hickman line gets put in (like me) it can be painful and annoying.

2. I want to summer tops. Typically summer style tops show a bit more of your chest and belly but having the line in and wearing summer tops makes them really visible. I don't care about people seeing my line but i always want to be careful i don't catch it on anything because these lines have a habit of falling out if they are pulled even slightly to hard.

3. I want to go in the shower. I simply can't go in the shower with the line in because it's not aloud to get wet. If the line gets wet theres a chance it will cause infection and with my low immune system its not something i want to happen. So, instead i go in the bath i have to tape my lines up and wash with a flannel because i have to sit up in the bath and only have the water to waist height.

The major benefit of having a Hickman line is obviously that i no longer need to get needles every time they want to check my blood!! The nurses can just take it directly from my lines. Sometimes when they take the blood out my chest feels really warm and when the salty water goes in to clean my line my chest can feel really cold!

Since my treatment has finished my Hickman line is due to come out in the coming weeks/ next month or so! I couldn't be happier at the thought of a long hot shower!

Lauren :-)