Port Issues

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jcavanaugh
jcavanaugh Member Posts: 100
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
My dad has a port for receiving his chemo. It was put in 2 to 3 years ago. Lately, he has had a couple of infections which have delayed chemo. Has anyone else experienced this? Do people usually get their ports replaced after a couple of years because of infections?

Thanks!!

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  • apache4
    apache4 Member Posts: 272 Member
    #2
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    Where are the infections? It is a closed circuit except when it is accessed so I don't know how infection could get in there. The chemo nurses are super careful and they flush each time, etc. What does the Dr. say?
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #3
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    I've had my port for well over a year and the doctors have never said anything about changing my port? I too wonder where your father's infections are?
  • pamness
    pamness Member Posts: 524 Member
    #4
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    I didn't have any trouble with my port, but my oncologist suggested I have it removed when I was done with treatment to avoid any potential problems with infection. I have a number of antibiotic allergies, but I was told they can get infected - not easily - but not unheard of at all.
  • kmygil
    kmygil Member Posts: 876 Member
    #5
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    Hi. I had my port in for 9 months after I finished chemo "just in case". I didn't know I was supposed to get it flushed at least every 6 weeks. Luckily I got no infections, but I had it removed shortly after I found out about the regular flushing even after use has ceased.
  • renee2u
    renee2u Member Posts: 27
    #6
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    I got my port the first week of Sept 07. When I had some eating problems and blockage I was put on TPN thru my port for 6 days... that basically clogged my port and no matter how much heparin or flushing they could never get blood from the port again. I did have a power port... the Drs wanted it out as soon as possible so I had it out in January 08.

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