Port flushing question, revisited...

From Lifeb4now:

there are differnet types of ports,thus not a standard for flushing/maintainence.Power port[as my husband has] ACS states monthly; but the 'tunneled' ports are more often,since part is inside and outside[which iT kinda older design]the power port is the way to go; no external anything:)and there seems confusion over types of 'internal ports' i.e. power port/smart port are brands of same type,and YES they can access blood from this type,feeds into main vein and stops just short of the heart[plenty of blood there} And they are best left IN after chemo,even if NED,because your arent termed 'cancer-free' till you reach your 5 year mark.and yes many still have them then.While i disagree that you show have it taken out when your done with chemo,I know from our own experience that we couldnt 'start' chemo till it was placed,and it was a 20,000.00 bill.They put these in AND out outpatient surgery.
Unfortunately Esophageal Cancer-stg 3[gastric junction]is hard to beat tends to come back within 2 years in 80% of patients.MY husband was 46[median age is 62]
Hubbys biggest fear is that it never left,because we learned that even though it didnt show up on CT scan or intial biospy[ 0 of 24 ]lympnodes removed;3 weeks after surgery 5 tested positve MICROSCOPICALLY.SO husbands reasoning if it was microscopic there it could be microscopic ANYWHERE,since it cant be seen on any scans.So he ordered 6 more weeks of chemo afterwards
Since were were totally unprepared for post surgery chemo,it was a good thing it was still there.The only issue ever was the type of bandage they used; rectangular clear with adhesive border,wouldnt stay on between 7 day appts,sticky and had to cover over for showers, the second goround after surgery the used gauze squares covering the 'butterfly' then put on clear total adhesive second skin,worked beautifully!

Dutch hugs, Kathi