Swelling from IV?

[becomingmandikaye 262]

They had to put my IV in my hand (ugh) and it's super swollen now. Seriously - it looks like a Water balloon up under my skin, and it's gone up my arm some.

Will ice help this sort of swelling, or should I just let it rest and go away on its own?

[gina171 626]

Are you in the hospital now or at home?

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If it's going up your arm some I would see a doctor right away!

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[Miss Mac 6,261]

I was puffy all over from the volume of IV fluids, but not just in one localized spot like that. Usually, an IV may leave me with a gnarly bruise where the needle was, but nothing like you are describing. Give your doctor a "heads up" on this one.

[becomingmandikaye 262]

I'm home. The nurse saw it when she took the IV out yesterday. I'm just not used to having IVs in my hand, it's usually near my elbow instead.

[reree6898 1,164]

If it's in one area like that then it may mean the line slipped out of the vein and the Fluid is flooding the surrounding tissue. It needs to be redone if your still needing the IV. The swelling will dissipate with time as your body absorbs the fluids.

[AvaFern 3,516]

To clarify, you're not in the hospital with the IV still in your hand, right? Lol, if you are, turn it off now and tell them, although if you're just at home, that is what happens when they extravasate your IV...basically they blew your line, except instead of having an immediate reaction, the IV Fluid leaks into your surrounding tissue instead. This is not great for several reasons. First, if if happens in surgery and no one notices it, the meds going into your IV are not being absorbed into your blood at the correct rate, however the anesthesiologist is watching your vitals so unless it happened when they pushed the initial drugs to knock you out, it's not that big of a deal. Next, depending upon what is actually going into that IV, it can cause tissue damage, which again, hopefully someone noticed that before they pushed anything that could hurt your arm and most things going into your IV for this surgery wouldn't cause long term damage.

In one of my plastics procedures this happened to me and my arm was swollen for almost a week. I had little vienna sausage fingers. It caused temporary nerve damage in my wrist so that I couldn't touch my wrist for a few months without feeling a little pain. It healed all on its own, although now a few years later if someone grabs my arm too tightly, or I snap my FitBit shut against my arm, sometimes I'll end up with a sore wrist for a few days.

Put ice on it like you would an injured knee or ankle, keep it elevated, and you'll be fine. Don't be too concerned if you have some sensitivity in your arm for a few weeks. Also, document it. Take a picture, let your surgeon know- email him about it, with pictures, so it's timestamped, dated, and clearly part of your file. When someone doesn't recognize that kind of issue and you end up with an arm full of fluids, it's really not awesome. While I'm not remotely litigious, in the event a type of drug was pushed in that IV that does cause damage, it's important to have a record of the injury. I am 99.9% sure you will be fine, but no harm no foul in documentation.

[becomingmandikaye 262]

It was my last dose of IV Zofran that did it, and then I was still getting the fluids/electrolytes.

It's sore, but slowly going down.

Thanks for the info!