Can I get a second port?

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ladinred26
ladinred26 Member Posts: 28
edited March 2019 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

I finished chemo treatment in late oct 2017. Had surgery and then radiation throughout the first half of 2018. During that time I also had my power port removed. Fast forward a little over six months later and my bc has metastasized and I’m going to need more chemo.

I’ve searched and searched but can’t find any answer on whether I can another power port installed. I have horrible veins and the thought of all those sticks makes me want to cry. For one of my surgeries it too more than an hour to get an iv in. During one hospital stay I blew three Ivs in one day. My arms were a bruised mess after that stay.

Have any of you had a second power port implanted





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  • xxyzed
    xxyzed Member Posts: 230
    edited January 2019

    My surgeon was quick to remove my port after I finished chemo. He said the risk of complications of having it longer than necessary outweighed keeping it for a set time just in case of recurrence when it was such a simple process to install a new one if I did recur. That tells me it is possible and standard practice to get a new port in the event of recurrence or metastasis

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  • WC3
    WC3 Member Posts: 1,540
    edited January 2019

    Yes you can have a new port placed. I'm on my third.

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  • NancyHB
    NancyHB Member Posts: 1,512
    edited January 2019

    I had one for my first go-around, then a second installed for my local recurrence. I had that’s one removed because it wasn’t a power port. I’m waiting until I need to start chemo again and will be having a third installed. All in the same place

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  • Parrynd1
    Parrynd1 Member Posts: 408
    edited March 2019

    Is the port always placed in the chest? I have skin mets all over my right breast, and abdomen and they are soon to spread to the skin by my port. It’s already spread to the left breast and the skin near my port. I have recently had some access issues, but am unsure if it’s caused by the cancer or just because it happens sometimes. Either way I don’t want to push through skin mets for my port. My right arm has Lymphedema so it’s not a good access point for treatment...leaving everything to lefty. I’m hoping a new port can be installed somewhere else?
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  • xxyzed
    xxyzed Member Posts: 230
    edited March 2019

    ports can also be installed in your upper arm but it isn’t very common

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  • wam
    wam Member Posts: 168
    edited March 2019

    Hi ladies: I had a port placed in my upper left arm in 2015. It has worked very well for me. I had bilateral cancers so I guess the doctor felt a chest port would be removed at the mastectomy.

    The nurses always comment that it is in my arm, like I was mistreated somehow. I moved to an NCI center where the doctors say it is fine.


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