Essentially it is a tube inserted (in my case) in the left chest that is tunneled under the skin and enters the circulatory system at the left subclavian vein and is strung into the superior vena cava and stops just inside the right atrium of the heart.
The difference between what I have and the illustration is that my catheter stops when it just enters the heart and the catheter in the illustration continues into the pulmonary artery.
The catheter is split into two sides (one red and one blue) this is so, during apharesis they can pull blood out of my body thru one tube and reinstill the blood thru the other side. This keeps them from having to start another IV.
Care for the Hickman Catheter:
Flush each side with 10cc saline daily
Cleanse entire external catheter with alcohol weekly
Cleanse body area under bandage with alcohol weekly
Change dressing weekly.
If the dressing gets wet or looses integrety then change as needed.
More Detailed Care Instructions Here: http://www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/patient_education/pepubs/hickman.pdf
I also started the Mobilization process. Basically everyday I go down to the clinic and get a dose of neupogen. I'm no stranger to neupogen since I've been getting it all thru chemo. however I get a double dose for mobilization. Instead of getting the 400mcg that most people get, I get 950mcg everyday for about 5-6 days before they start collecting the stem cells. The most common side effect of neupogen is bone pain. It would be fair to say that I'm having moderate bone pain but the pain is reasonably relieved by Tylenol.
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