Cancer Survivors Network

Julie,

I did not have radiation, but as to the port question--having a port is wonderful. It sure saves a lot of wear and tear on the veins! They can use the port to draw blood, administer chemo or other drugs...I had to have 4 units of blood because of anemia, and they transfused me through my port. Also, if you're hospitalized and can get out of bed, it's a lot easier to drag the IV pole along if the IV is in your port rather than your arm.

Good luck to you and your mom, and God bless you. Maybe if we all pray hard enough someone will come through with a cure for this nasty disease.

Melody

Hi Julie, I'm glad that your mom has started the treatments. I have the Hickman Cath port. I was able to get all my chemo through it, but they were never able to draw blood through it. They said they thought it had sucked up against the chest wall. So, darn, I still had to be stuck. The radiation and chemo were really not that bad. My worse symptoms were diarehea and raditation burns on my front and back, but they had meds for both. I never really got tired until about the 5th week, but it really wasn't too bad. I went to the surgeon today and will have surgery in 4-5 weeks. Will keep the port until after surgery, to see if I will need further chemo. It really does help having it. Good luck to your mom and if you have any questions, or any thing I can help with, just let me know.
Love and prayers, Judy H

Julie- I love my port. I have had mine since 6/02. Although they sometimes have difficulty drawing blood from some ports, mine was only a problem once. Changing positions, coughing and moving around solved the problem.

I had no problems during radiation until the last week when I developed severe inflammation in my rectum. My radiation oncologist prescribed steroid suppositories which helped a bunch, so I was only uncomfortable for a few more days. You can get irritation of the skin. The amount depends upon exactly the site they have to treat. I had only a quarter size red area like a bad sunburn. A topical ointment Biafine controlled that very well. All in all it was not bad at all for me.

Best wishes,

Kris

Hi Julie,

I have my port still. I will get it removed on my 5 yr anniversary, which is about 2 yrs away. Yes, it is scary...the unknown usually is. But don't let it consume your entire being. You need to be positive for your mom. Nobody enjoys any of this, but you need to fight the good fight for the simple sake of being here. Take each day as it comes, and before you know it, you'll be telling all of us about HER success story!

Blessings and positive thoughts for you BOTH,

Stacy

Hi-my husband started the same treatment 2.5 weeks ago and is doing really well with it-I completely understand your concern and worry about it beciuase it is the not knowing what to expect that is hardest. He is at present still working and although is a bit more tired than usual and gets a bit of diarrhoea(controlled with loperamide) things are really much better than we had envisaged so hang in there and cross the days of treatment off the calendar-at least teatment has started and you can begin to get this tumour healed so you can get on with life-good luck

Looks like my wife