I am on AVD Cycle 6A, and up until now was having chemo through cannula.
However, After 11 failed cannulation attempts and then 4 days later another 14 cannulation attempts (25 cannulation attempts in total) I was only able to receive the Doxorubicin and Vinblastine as my vein went red around the cannulation site during treatment.
The Nurses were concerned about extravasation as my veins are so weak, and so did not risk giving the Dacarbazine.
Since then my cannula site continues to be red and swollen and the whole arm aches and feels weak, the pain is to the point where it is effecting my sleep, i have had vein pain/ache after previous ABVD treatments, but the cannula site being red is concerning me. I spoke to my chemo nurses about it yesterday, and they gave heat pack to put on it, they said extravasation is very rare...
Its day 8 since that last treatment (exactly 1 week since).
I have now been fitted with a Picc Line to have the 6a Dacarbazine and for my final treatment (6b).....
IF extravasation has occurred what would i expect to see/feel?
Hi fate22 and good to hear that you are nearing the end of your treatments and good that they put a PICC line in. I have a different type of Lymphoma and treatments but all my treatments were through a PICC or Hickman lines for my Stem Cell Transplants.
I have also had many cannulas over the years for scans but also during my many post treatment weeks in hospital with infections. I think the most insertion attempts was about 6.
I have had extravasation a few time when having antibiotics but these happened months apart so there was no accumulation of the problems but I experienced a badly swollen arm for a good week, redness around the cannula site, some pain, my skin was sore to touch at times and yes it affected my sleep but it passed. I regularly had a heat pad over my arm and this helped but eventually the problems passed away as the body is amazing in how it deals with stuff like this ((hugs))
