Has anyone had problems with their new port?

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jenben59
jenben59 Member Posts: 136 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
I just had the port put in at the beginning of January. I've only had 1 round of chemo. The first round took almost all day, because the port was "clogged" with some kind of "growth" on the inside. They finally got it cleaned out and could access my blood. I receive my chemo every two weeks and Wednesday I went in to get it and they could not even get the needle in the port. They sent me to the hospital to get an X-ray and a scan to check the port. When I got to the hospital the drug they put in your body for the scan has iodine in it which I'm allergic to, so the doctor had to write a prescription for some drugs that counteract it and I have to wait a day for it to take effect and get the scan today. I really hoping I don't have to go back in and have another port put in and wait a week or so for it to heal so I can continue my chemo. I'm working very hard to stay as healthy as I can and stay on the chemo schedule. Has anyone have/had port problems and if so, how serious is it to be off your chemo schedule...especially if you just started chemo?

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  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #2
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  • msccolon
    msccolon Member Posts: 1,917 Member
    #3
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    port trouble
    The first port I had in always was "positional" meaning I had to hold my arm a certain way when the left side (it was a dual access port) was accessed or the chemo wouldn't flow. Then, 3 treatments shy of the end of my cycle the catheter broke off at the point it was sewed into the artery and was floating around in my heart so they had to go in after it! It looked like a 6 inch worm inside my heart and it moved when the heart beat! So, needless to say they had to remove the port after I was done with chemo and my last treatments were done via vein access. Before I had to go on chemo again they placed another different port; it's single access and it's been in for 3 years with no problems. Sometimes it just seems like the hits keep coming! For a while there I just hated going into the hospital even for scans because nothing ever turned out as easy as it appeared to be!
    mary

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