Port complications

My ports been in for more than 2 years with no problems. Sorry you're having trouble.  Chemo can be hard on your veins, very hard.  That's the reason for a port.  I wouldn't want to do chemo without one. Give it some good hard thought.

My port has been in for 5 yrs with no problems.  The only time there was a slight issue was at one flush when an RN was being trained.  She got no blood return simply because she had not used enough pressure to actually get into the port.  The instructor quickly showed her.  I have no intention to have it removed.  I view it as my 'lil soldier' standing guard to keep any nasty monsters from attacking BUT if they do - he's there and armed ready for the fight.  Yeah, I know that a childish way to look at it but works for me. 

Chemo is very nasty on veins - even good veins.  I had (still have) great veins so there is no way that I was going to have them ruined by chemo.  Because my A/C was neoadjuvant either arm could have been used but the 12 Taxol were adjuvant so only one arm could have been used, thus potential for ruining veins was not a possibility I was willing to accept.

After each use (or monthly if not used), it needs to be have fluid run through it and then heparin inserted to prevent clotting.  At the next use or monthly flush, the heparin is then pushed through with fluid and then new heparin is put in.  Not all ports can be used for 'dye'.

There is no 'One Size Fits All' so we each have to do what we believe is 'best' for us.

Spookiesmom - Being IBC - odds (IF you believe in odds) are more likely that I will have a recurrance or mets than that I won't.  So why take out what is already there ready for,use,IF needed and then have to have another put in 'somewhere' else?

I like going for my monthly flushes!  I get to talk with my PA's RN as she is the one who almost always does my flushes.  If I have any questions to ask she'll ask my PA and get me in to see her immediately, if needed.

My MO said I was high risk for reocurrance, that if I made it 2-3 years I had a pretty good chance. That, and if it came out, they can't put it back where it is now, can't use the rads side, and I don't want to think where it MIGHT go

Other than pain, I had no problems w my port, but when I was finished w chemo I had it removed immediately. I have very thin small veins so even blood draws are difficult and that's when I wish I had my port. I pray I never need chemo again but...I would have another put in in a heartbeat. Good luck with yours. I hope it can be fixed.

i just got mine out, no one told me that if needed, one couldn't go back in the same side! now i am piSSEd! but there was my neighbor lady friend who had one put in twice same side, 5 years apart. she was a doctor's wife. i just thought they had to enter it into a different spot of the vein, because of scar tissue inside the cut vein. is that the vena cava it went into? and it's funny, i guess my doctors wanted it out more than me, maybe they have more faith in their own work than i do. you can see how messed up mine was!

I've had my port since 2010. I've had two instances where it failed. Both times the cause was the nurse didn't heplock it, I was hospitalized and they flushed it with saline and it clotted overnight. The 1st time it was completely blocked and anti clotting meds didn't work. I had a procedure where interventional radiology went through my groin and accessed and removed the clot from the inside. The second time, the anti clotting meds worked. Thankfully, I didn't have to have a new port placed. 

Jem

It was my Breast Surgeon who implanted my port.  It was implanted the day before I started neoadjuvant A/C.

Please get the port, I have observed the horror of people coping with chemo without ports (chemo delivery much longer because their solid veins keep collapsing etc.) . My doctors did not give me an option-and thank goodness they did not or I would have found away out of it (the scar is ugly, it may be uncomfortable, looking for port horror stories etc.) My first port experience was a duzy: swollen (newly inserted-so it was like bobbing for apples.)  As my surgeon placed the port deep, they discovered I needed a longer needle.  As all this was resolved on the 1st treatment, it's been uneventful since. Not all port craziness is the fault of the port, one surgeon placed a runner's port so shallow and on her bra line that the port worked it's way to the surface, she reported for chemo like there was nothing wrong-the oncologist removed it on the spot.  There have medical personnel who are rather clueless dealing with ports leaving the patient to believe the ports the issue-there are more than one type of port.  Make certain that notjust anyone is not attempting to deal with your port.