Port to Port

Tuesday, September 24, 2013 early that morning I arrived at the hospital, on time, then getting lost throughout the hospital for a good 30 minutes; finally my mom and I arrived at the IR to get a port put in me. First of all, I was terrified to even get a port to begin with. After talking to the nurse that would accompany me through the procedure and then the surgeon that would perform the procedure, I relaxed a bit more. Not only did I need to have the port put in, due to being, how I call it, stabbed, in the arm 4 days in a row for my chemo a week and a half before, and having a massive bruise, that to this day has yet to go away fully, I decided that I could do this. The surgeon showed me what I would be getting, what it would look like, how the procedure would be, and everything else to do with a port. So off I went, into the procedure room, all hooked up to an IV, a blood pressure cuff that would go off every 5 minutes or so, and a heart monitor on my finger, into the twilight zone I headed. The procedure was so easy!

During the procedure I was able to talk, and listen to my music, as long as I was sitting still with my head turned to the left. I felt the pinch of the needle of the Novocain numbing the area that they would put the port in, but afterwards I didn’t feel a thing! Almost at the end of the procedure, I asked - because being twilighted makes you forget how much time has passed – if they had already cut me open and put my port in, and the surgeon looked at me, kind of laughed and said that she was stitching me up and we were just about done!

Another benefit, compared to having my TACE procedures and my biopsy, instead of having to lay flat for 2 hours and waiting at least an hour to eat or drink anything, with the port procedure I didn’t have to lay flat and I could eat immediately. I actually left within 15-20 minutes after having my procedure finish!

There is one downside to the port, not because of the procedure or anything, but because of myself. I am so skinny now, with very little skin covering my body that the port sticks out like a sore thumb. If I had a shirt that revealed my port, you’d wonder what it was. The triangular port itself and the catheter that leads to the artery/vein that they use for the port stick out in my skin. Now my skin has started to relax and part of my catheter is a bit more hidden, in the middle of it all, but the top of the catheter and the port itself stay prominent.

My port the day after the procedure before the steri strips came off naturally (top left), and my port after all the steri strips came off (bottom left). As you can see in the second picture, the catheter is starting to blend a little bit more into my skin in the middle!