PE several times

Anonymous
December 21, 2011 at 1:48 am

I have had PE several times and found it helped right away. Mayo actually recommended this treatment for me but because local facilities were not used to doing this it was difficult. I found a group of pharmacy students observing each time! My first set of central lines stayed in but after my first round I could tell right away something was wrong and reported this and was told I was not used to them. But soon I could (sorry for the graphic it) smell something was wrong. I went in and sure enough they were infected and would removed that day. They said they thought it was nothing serious would run tests on the infections which did come back for staph. So I had to have a pic line put in my arm and went in for daily antibiotics for a month. A second set of central lines were put in and that went fine but after the last round they were removed.

We decide I was just to susceptible to infection to keep them in. I moved on to get a port for home infusions which worked really well with no infections.

I wish PE was a regular option but just wasn’t willing to risk the infection. It was also hard for me to maintain the lines – I tended to react to tape and coverings to protect the lines. I was lucky that my family was willing to help take care of the lines while they were in. This was hard for me to do on my own.