Port Leak?

jhcnslr

My husband is on his 2nd round of chemo, (State 3 Colon Cancer) and is on the portable pump of 5FU for 48hrs along with all the other Folfox meds. After being on the pump for about 24 hrs., he started experiencing SEVERE pain around the port, in his neck, down his arm and chest. After calling doc, goinging to er, and being admitted, they ruled out heart, blood clot, etc. They have scheduled a Doppler/dye test for later this week. I guess my question is: Has anyone out there experienced anything similar that could be a Port Leak? Would 5FU be a cause of all the pain he was in? They did hook him up to Saline drip while in the hospital and it did not cause the pain. Thanks for any thoughts any of you might have.

jams67

I didn't have a port leak, but I did have a bloodclot that blocked the end of the port so that they could pump liquid in but could not take blook out. This caused a lot of problems for me. One called Superior Vena Cava Syndrone which was very painful at the onset. Not sure if this even applies to your situation.
Jo Ann

Moesimo

They should check his port in radiology before it is used again.

Maureen

jsabol

I had a very similar pain; thought I was having a heart attack! Ultrasound in the ER did show a clot in one of my neck veins, but by that time the pain had subsided and my surgeon wondered if I had also experienced some "buckshot" pulmonary emboli, which were too small to show on ultrasound and were then basically reabsorbed? After the initial severe pain subsided (within hours; I was still in the ER), I did have some ongoing discomfort from distended neck veins around the area of the clot in my neck. I remained on coumadin until my port was removed post-treatment; I had no further complications and my port remained usable throughout! Scary, but everything turned out OK.
Good luck to your hubby. Judy

jhcnslr

jsabol said:

I had a very similar pain; thought I was having a heart attack! Ultrasound in the ER did show a clot in one of my neck veins, but by that time the pain had subsided and my surgeon wondered if I had also experienced some "buckshot" pulmonary emboli, which were too small to show on ultrasound and were then basically reabsorbed? After the initial severe pain subsided (within hours; I was still in the ER), I did have some ongoing discomfort from distended neck veins around the area of the clot in my neck. I remained on coumadin until my port was removed post-treatment; I had no further complications and my port remained usable throughout! Scary, but everything turned out OK.
Good luck to your hubby. Judy

Thanks so much - what you have experienced sounds exactly like what my husband had. He has a dye test study of the port scheduled for Friday, but I doubt that it will show anything. Thanks again