Post 20: Cannulas

Ah, cannulas.

Basically, a fine needle with a plastic housing, which is used to get fluids either into, or out of, the body via a chosen vein, and provide an easy/quick access.

Once installed the needle element is removed, as this is only to pearce through the skin and vein walls. From the, pipes or plastic syringes can be connected via the push/twist connector.

The colour of the 'dial control' determines the length/diameter of the needle, blue bring a smaller needle for use in the back of the hand, for example, but all depends on the purpose/location.

Each time they're used for fluid upload into the body, a 'flush' saline first clears the cannula off any dried debris. Then the important/delivery fluid is attached and squirted in, followed by a final saline flush.

Something to note, is that whilst these are being flushed each time, you'd think you can keep using them, right?

Well, no, because noone agreed this with your body and therefore it is working to reject the foreign entity. So, in short, the cannula can become blocked and unusable. Using it when this happens == great pain.

I've had a few fitted in my several days here so far:

• One cannula was added just before my general anesthetic, for fluid input.
• A second (geek: a 'parallel' port? 🤪) was added at some point during the GA for a morphine control button, which was connected to a special machine beside me. I didn't ask for this to be reinstalled somewhere else, at I had passed the point of needing it in a click-button delivery.
• After the first ports died, a doctor tried to add one to my forearm and then to the back of my hand (away from previous areas) before succeeding on the inside of my elbow (which although it was a nice install, I was a bit miffed about it, as that was my good/working arm and could now no-longer feed myself properly!!)
• Once the elbow cannula died-out, I had the blue one fitted to the back of my hand - felt like the needle was scraping along the back of my hand as it went in, so o not nice!!

Currently, all have been removed, which is absolutely great.

And yes, catching a cannula on clothes/bedsheets/etc isn't a nice experience!!

#surgery #sarcoma #cannula