Day 34

PICC line flushed and redressed today. You wouldn’t believe the hassle with getting this done at a GP surgery – apparently there are so many derivatives, no-one carries (or can guess) which one you have, as there is no general standard.

Mine’s a Power PICC Solo2 catheter. Can the District Nurse do the necessary? Er, yes, as long as I get all the ‘bits’. Did the hospital send me out with any spare parts (bungs, saline, dressings, syringes, needles etc?) Er, no. Pharmacy next to GP Surgery managed to get in some saline, but the dressing (IV-3000) was beyond them (despite 2 visits to show them the one in situ).

Charles’ Angels to the rescue.... again

In the end one of Charles’ Angels was convinced to post one out from the hospital, but not after a minor lecture on whose ‘budget’ this should come from. So the hospital says it’s the GP surgery. The District Nurse (major lecture) says it’s the hospital. The Pharmacy can’t source the right dressing, even if the GP can be convinced to write a prescription, but then you need the hypodermics and syringes, which you can’t get without a full health & safety and psychological assessment. Aaarrgghhh!