Dealing with Emergencies

Please call 911 or go to your closest emergency room if you have:

Fever (temperature is 38.3°C (100.9°F) or higher at any time or 38.0°C (100.4°F) or higher for 1 hour)

• Breathing problems
  • Shortness of breath
  • Wheezing
  • Chest pain
  • Blue lips
• Bleeding that does not stop with pressure
• Change in level of consciousness (feeling more drowsy) or not feeling alert
• New confusion
• Seizures
• Throwing up that lasts more than 12 hours
• Headaches
  • That get worse
  • That are new and severe
  • Happen with a sore or stiff neck
  • With a fever
  • With coughing or having a bowel movement (poo)
  • With confusion or drowsiness
  • That wake you from your sleep
  • After a fall
• Fainting
• Unexplained or non-stop pain
• Diarrhea that lasts more than 12 hours

Please call Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre if you:

• Have problems with your PICC line or Hickman line such as:
  • Pain or redness at the exit site
  • Leaking or bleeding
  • Swelling around the exit site, along the tunnel or down your neck, shoulders or arm
• Have chills or shakes
• Have changes in your skin colour:
  • Yellow
  • Heavy bruising
  • Tiny reddish-purple dots
  • Rashes
  • Blood blisters
• Feel burning or pain when you pee, foul smelling pee or see blood in your pee
• See a change in how much you pee (more or less) or unable to pee
• Have leaking or bleeding from your vagina or penis
• Feel dizzy or light-headed
• Major changes in appetite or eating habits
• Feel symptoms of a cold or flu:
  • A lot of sneezing
  • Runny nose
  • Cough
  • Sore throat
  • General aches and pains
• Have sore eyes like itchiness, dryness or pain when you look at the light

These symptoms are not an emergency, but your health care team will need to help you manage them.