While it sounds like typical symptoms of an infiltration, I'd be interested in knowing if this was a new ATB for you or if you had a temp at the time.
Unless I'm very ill I stay outpatient and schedule my PICC for the next day. IF I go to the docs and he puts me in it seems like it takes till around 3PM the next day anyway as the powers that be don't deem my insertion an emergency. If I am running a temp I will usually go on in.
As far as the comment about the 'electricial jolt' and numbness. MAKE THEM STOP. Any nurse putting in a perhipal IV would know those complaints are symptoms of touching a nerve or even going through a nerve bundle and stop.
This happened to me 2 years ago and the guy wouldn't stop. When I got back to the room it hurt for several hours and every bog hung would increase the pain. Of course I had to wait it out for 24 hours before they could get me back down and try again. I was in tears each bag! As I told my doc: I couldn't remember the last time I actually cried during a PICC insertion! (I think that's when he accepted the level of pain I was having - he knows I'm pretty tough and he used to do all my IVs in the pre-PICC days). Anyway, I wound up with lasting nerve damage that has fairly well resoved over time but the tips of my first two fingers on my left arm still do not have all the feeling back - makes it very hard to palpate pulses when I"m 'playing' nurse instead of doing my boring regular job in regulations.
Ports - I've had them all (I think) - Hickman, Broviac & Infusa-Port. I'm not so sure I want another unless I get to the point that I'm doing IVs more than every 6 months. I've had both a Brovia & an Infusa-Port get infected (and I got septic both times). The Broviac was because no-body (including me) thought about underwire bras and Broviacs not making good partners - or at least not when God blessed ya with a bunch. The underwire in my bra rubbed a very positional hole in the catheter that we accidently found during a blood draw. The Infusa-Port became infected (my version, but I"m sticking to it) when a home care nurse snorted and huff&puffed her way through a dressing change refusing to wear a mask (NEVER left ANYONE, including your family/spousal unit not wear a mask during the changes) and I developed a goose-egg lump around the prot a few days later that cultered MRSA (and the next sputum I also began culturing MRSA in the sputum). 2 runs of Vanco later, we finally gave up and took it out. Because it was so bad I now have a 1.5 to 2" scare that's about a 1/4" wide over my right boob. It shows anytime I wear a scoopneck or v-neck shirt. I looked into having it 'fixed' but can't classify the repair as anything but 'cosmetic' by insurance standards - so I gotta keep it. So, I don't think they are all that cool to have. But, if it came down to IVs every other month or so, I'd do it again.
I also didn't likethe fact that I had to be sedated to get one put in. Just lido me up and give me a PICC, please.
