Ray of Sunshine: Ports

This post is going to be pretty graphic with pictures of post surgery and an exposed port-a-cath so if your squeamish you may want to skip this one.

As soon as I was diagnosed I had to get a port put in. A port is a circular disk that goes under your skin in either your chest or on your arm. There is a catheter that is fed to your heart. Chemo is extremely damaging to your veins, this prevents the extent of that damage. The coolest part of a port is you can get it put in and then go straight to chemo that day.

They prefer to put it in the chest, just below the clavicle. My lymph nodes were so abundant and so swollen that I had to get mine in my arm. They wouldn't have been able to feed the catheter between the nodes. This is not ideal, because it goes on the inside of your arm which is sweaty and dirtier than your chest, as well as hard not to overuse.

It is an outpatient and awake procedure. I went to the hospital early in the morning and was headed up about 5 hours later. The actual surgery takes about 45 minutes; most of the time I spent in the hospital was just waiting for my turn. They kept me afterwards for about 30 minutes to make sure I didn't have any negative side effects from the drugs.

When it was time to get started they took me back to the operating room. The surgeon spent a while talking to me while doing an ultrasound of my arm and chest to find the best vein to go with. Finally, I was given a sedative. The drug is supposed to make you go in and out of sleep. I was told I wouldn't know what was happening, that I would hear them talking, but not remember any of it afterwards. However, because I'm apparently not one of the lucky ones who gets loopy easily, I was awake and aware through the whole thing. The nurse who was in charge of me did ask if she could give me more. It worked for about 5 minutes and I was back to being wide awake. It wasn't that bad being awake, just kind of freaky knowing that you are being cut open. They do cover your head with a tarp type thing so you don't see anything. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic. Afterwards, I was just sore. It wasn't all that painful at all.

This is right after surgery

I had to keep that bandage on until my first chemo, 3 days later. When it was taken off I had a lovely bruise that was quite impressive.

The steri strips stayed on for about 3 weeks

After the steri strips came off.

About a month after getting it put in I ended up with an infection. I had to keep my arm wrapped up because of work, which caused a lot of problems. A stitch popped out and it was leaking wet stuff. ICK!!! I was put on antibiotics and had to keep a close eye on it for awhile.

I was pretty careless with it. I am stubborn so I was hell bent on still doing all the lifting at work that I wasn't supposed to. I way over used it. It is hard not to when it's in your arm. About a month and a half after the infection I got the lovely surprise of unwrapping it after work one day and finding my port pretty much hanging out of my arm.

Initiate panic mode!

I literally had a hole in my arm. I had had a scab for awhile, but it had come off and left grossness in its wake.

Did I mention it was gross?!?!

The next day I was headed back into surgery. Yippie! This time it was put in my chest which is awesome!

They did the removal and the replacement at the same time. The surgeon and the nurses couldn't get over my arm. They had never seen anything like that happen before, at least not to that extent.

I was a lot less nervous going into this surgery than the first time. Thinking that since I had done it once before, I knew what to expect. Oi, was I wrong! This time was sooo much worse. The numbing shots hurt more than they ever had before. Also, I could feel them feeding the catheter. It was all around unpleasant. Oh, and the sedative did diddly squat. They didn't give me extra even though it was a longer surgery. The only time I felt the sedative was for a few minutes after it was pushed through my IV. I was shaking so badly, I don't know how they were able to do anything. The removal of the one in my arm was painful. I could feel him cutting away the skin and sewing it shut. Next time, I'm definitely going to need more sedative!

The best part was that I got an copy of my xray of my Power Port. It kind of makes the whole experience worth it ;)