The last three times that I have had chemo, my port has given me trouble again. It flushes beautifully, but when we try to draw blood from it, we're unsuccessful, most likely due to a clot in the port. My nurse then injects my port with heparin, which is a blood thinner, and then every half hour, she tries to draw blood. This past Tuesday I was at the clinic for an additional three hours before we finally drew blood from my port!
With my implant surgery coming up on Monday, I asked my nurse if I should ask my surgeon about the possibility of replacing or cleaning my port at the same time, and she told me it was worth asking about since it's been giving us so much trouble. So I scooted over to my surgeon's office after I was done with chemo and posed my question to his nurse, who said she would talk to the doctor and get back to me the next morning. When she called, she told me that surgery was not an option yet; that they needed me to have an ultrasound of my port first, to determine what was wrong. She was able to arrange that for the following day.
On Thursday afternoon I went to the hospital where they injected my port with dye and then slid me under the ultrasound scanner so they could see what was going on with my port. They were able to see that I have a little "flap" at the entry of my port, which is a glob of blood that is causing the blockage. The flap gets pushed out of the way when my port is flushed, but when drawing blood the suction brings the flap up into the opening, thus blocking it. Aha! It was then explained to me that there were two ways they could try to dislodge the flap. The first option would be to inject my port with a very strong dose of heparin and allow it to stay in my port for 24 hours before trying to draw blood. The next option, if that didn't work, would be to go up through a vein in my groin and pull the flap out. Ugh.
I had the strong dose of heparin injected in my port that afternoon, and then was asked to come back on Friday afternoon so they could see if it worked. I am pleased to say that when I went back to the hospital and they pulled back the syringe that was in my port, we saw beautiful, dark red blood immediately! Yippee! My port is working again!
Hi Marcia,
ReplyDeleteI remember all the problems also. Actually, I didn't have any trouble at all with my internal chest port. The fun started when I had to have a neostar port installed prior to my transplant. This is a tunneled port with 3 lumens or access ports that drape outside the skin. Ideally, they work best on the right side of the chest. Since I already had an internal port on the right, they had to put it on the left. Well......needless to say, I had all kinds of issues getting that neostar to work correctly. Just like you, it would flush and accept IV fluids just fine, but when it came to drawing blood it was a nightmare! They had me do everything but stand on my head to get it to work with very limited success. Since keeping a constant watch on my blood counts was crucial to my care, they decided to change everything around the day before my transplant. So....I ended up having 3 surgeries that day. Remove the internal port, remove the left hand neostar port and install a new neostar on the right side. Sounds like fun, right? At any rate it was good that they did, because the 4:00 a.m. blood draws went a lot faster after that! I'm glad that you have your port working well again. Good luck on Monday! I'll be thinking of you as I get my 9 month post transplant PET Scan. Here's hoping that we both have positive outcomes on Monday!
Love,
Janet
Hey Marcia!
ReplyDeleteWe are still thinking about you in Georgia! Although I pray for you often, I will say special prayers on Monday morning! You must be excited to be getting the implants. My friends here who have had that part of the treatment look great these days. These girls had their implants "gradually" filled over several weeks so it was not too tough for them. You are so positive and beautiful! That is certainly the reason that you are becoming the "poster child" and the media specialist in your area! Give yourself and Rich a hug from Robert and me! Anne
Yeah Marcia ! So glad you are all "unplugged" and your port is back in action. What an ordeal that was. And your implant day is tomorrow!!! Wow, one more thing to check off your list! I was in by 8:00 am and out by noon for mine. Can't wait to hear all about it. Prayers are already going up for you and Rich too tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless. We'll talk soon. Love Ann