blood clot in catheter

jams67
jams67 Member Posts: 925 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
I have a blood clot in my carotid artery that is causing facial, neck, shoulder, and chest swelling. Has anyone experienced that? I have been following your discusssions lately but have not seen anything pertaining to a blood clot in cath. I have just finished my chemo for stage IV colon cancer and am now NED. Yeah! But now have neropathy and the blood clot. I'm taking Wafarin for the blood clot and having a weekly blood test to determine dosage.

Comments

  • jsabol
    jsabol Member Posts: 1,145 Member
    #2
    Hi jams,
    Sorry that you are experiencing this. I also got a clot in a neck vein, can't remember the name of it, but not the one that had my port threaded into it. I had pretty intense shoulder and chest pain at first. I then went on to neck swelling, and ongoing shoulder discomfort for a while. It is a potential complication of having a port, but not extremely common. Mine was in the middle of chemo, and we decided to leave the portacath in. I had initial treatment with Luvonox (sp?)injections and then coumadin. I could actually see the clot in my neck; a little creepy, but I had no further complications. The clot dissolved with treatment, and I stayed on coumadin until I completed chemo and we took out the port when I was under anesthesia for another unrelated proceedure just a few weeks later. A hemotologist at one of the big medical centers said that some docs may recommend long term blood thinning, since there is no true way to determine risk of another clot once the port is out. We decided to stop the coumadin, and I have had no further complications. I'll be 2 years post chemo (and post port) in July, and NED. Good luck to you in riding this one out. Judy
  • jams67
    jams67 Member Posts: 925 Member
    #3
    jsabol said:

    Hi jams,
    Sorry that you are experiencing this. I also got a clot in a neck vein, can't remember the name of it, but not the one that had my port threaded into it. I had pretty intense shoulder and chest pain at first. I then went on to neck swelling, and ongoing shoulder discomfort for a while. It is a potential complication of having a port, but not extremely common. Mine was in the middle of chemo, and we decided to leave the portacath in. I had initial treatment with Luvonox (sp?)injections and then coumadin. I could actually see the clot in my neck; a little creepy, but I had no further complications. The clot dissolved with treatment, and I stayed on coumadin until I completed chemo and we took out the port when I was under anesthesia for another unrelated proceedure just a few weeks later. A hemotologist at one of the big medical centers said that some docs may recommend long term blood thinning, since there is no true way to determine risk of another clot once the port is out. We decided to stop the coumadin, and I have had no further complications. I'll be 2 years post chemo (and post port) in July, and NED. Good luck to you in riding this one out. Judy

    Thank you so much for your reply. It is reassuring to find out that there is an end to this swelling. At first I thought it was an allergy. My onco is very good but not very informative. I have to ask if I want answers. In this case, I didn't know what to ask. Thanks again for information.
  • lfondots63
    lfondots63 Member Posts: 818 Member
    #4
    Hi Jams67,

    I also had a blood clot from my port they believe. Mine is in my arm. They did several proceedures to try and get rid of it but only made it smaller. I'm on cumadin right now and get a blood test every week to make sure the dose is ok. I asked my oncologist about getting a test when I'm done chemo in August to see if the clot is smaller. He agreed. I do have some pain once in a while in arm and shoulder but it is not that bad now. It is worriesome but the doctors seem ok with it. They said it sometimes just happens. E-mail me if you want to talk. Take care and HUGS.

    Lisa

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