Trying on "Dressings"

[cathugger]

Apparently I’ll be getting my PICC line inserted in about a week (??), and I’m testing out dressings (or I think that’s what they’re called). At first I was like, “Oh great, more sticky patch-like things.” I don’t know if I’ve ever had a sticky patch put on my skin without problems (nothing that bad–just angry mast cells on my skin). It’s not a big deal if I leave them on for a few minutes; the redness/other effects on my skin will often last less than a day or two days at the longest.

It’s different when I constantly have to put a sticky patch on one area of skin for days/weeks at a time. It seems like my skin is just now recovering from a bandage I had to wear (and switch out of course) for over a week… months ago. It’s not bothering me much; it’ll just get red and itchy much easier than other patches of skin. I could even see the outline of the bandage when something bothered it until recently. And while I had to keep that bandage on (and yes, we tried TONS of different bandages, and I think it got to the point where putting pressure on that area made it angry) it was itchy, painful, burning, and covered in moving bumps (some pus-filled).

So yeah, I wasn’t looking forward to putting more patches on my skin, but these are turning out surprisingly okay. I’ve had one on my arm and one on my stomach and have had almost no problems!! Let’s hope the whole PICC line thing turns out that way, too (ifff we end up following through with it).

Comments

[darkoshi]

My partner had to have a picc line several years ago, for I/V antibiotics against a bad infection. I remember the skin on his arm got irritated by the dressing at first, so I went back and checked my notes. It was only the first dressing that was a problem. When the nurse replaced it, she said the irritation was probably because whoever put it on didn't use skin prep. So that is probably a good thing to use.

There's also stuff called "self-grip bandages" which is like a rubbery gauze that comes in a roll. You can wrap it around an arm or leg, etc., and it sticks to itself. I think we used that to help keep the picc lines in place, though it's been so long I'm not really sure anymore if that is what we used it for.

[cathugger]

This is a bit late, but thank you!! I've honestly never heard of skin prep, and I'm pretty sure they didn't use it when they inserted my PICC a few days ago. I'll definitely look into it.