Port a cath for chemo

Kristen1112
Kristen1112 Member Posts: 17
edited March 2013 in Head and Neck Cancer #1

Hello, my mom is scheduled for a port next Thursday and forgot to ask the Doctor a question. She would like to know if they will take the port out after treatment? If so how is it done? In office or surgery? 

Comments

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #2
    I stilll have mine

    and it's been a year, so I'll be waiting to hear the answers to your question, also....My sister and I were just talking about this tonight.

    p

  • jcortney
    jcortney Member Posts: 503
    #3
    Port

    Just had this conversation with my Med Oncologist on Tuesday.  He wants to have the port taken out at the same time they take out the feeding tube.  Believe it or not, it's an in-office procedure.  I asked how this could be possible as both took general anesthesia to put them in and he said it's a simple, easy removal.  Yeah, sure.  Anyway, we're hoping to do them both in 6 weeks.

    Joe

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #4
    Power Port

    My onco actually kept mine in for over two years...

    An like mentioned even though it is surgically put in and you're put under to have it inserted. Coming out is a 10 minute in office removal. A few shots of numbing meds, a small incision, a few tugs, and out it pops... A few dissolving stitches and a little super glue fixed the hole...

    Here is a photo of mine just after they popped it out...

    Port

    I took it in for my routine flushing as a joke for the nurses... I told them I was there for the flush, and handed it to them, LOL...

    JG

  • D Lewis
    D Lewis Member Posts: 1,581 Member
    #5
    Skiffin16 said:

    Power Port

    My onco actually kept mine in for over two years...

    An like mentioned even though it is surgically put in and you're put under to have it inserted. Coming out is a 10 minute in office removal. A few shots of numbing meds, a small incision, a few tugs, and out it pops... A few dissolving stitches and a little super glue fixed the hole...

    Here is a photo of mine just after they popped it out...

    Port

    I took it in for my routine flushing as a joke for the nurses... I told them I was there for the flush, and handed it to them, LOL...

    JG

    I love these 'inside jokes'

    That's a good one. Made me giggle.

    Deb

  • debbiejeanne
    debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member
    #6
    u r all braver than i am b/c

    u r all braver than i am b/c i'd be scared to death for it to come out in the office....lol.  here's to u.

    God bless,

    deb

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #7
    Thank you John, for the

    step by step....I didn't know who was even going to do it....guess that's the Onc, then.  I've had enough numbing agents in my chest just having to use it all those months, so this sounds pretty darn easy.  Easier than the tube...

    p

  • jcortney
    jcortney Member Posts: 503
    #8
    phrannie51 said:

    Thank you John, for the

    step by step....I didn't know who was even going to do it....guess that's the Onc, then.  I've had enough numbing agents in my chest just having to use it all those months, so this sounds pretty darn easy.  Easier than the tube...

    p

    I don't think so

    I don't think the Onc does it.  In my case it's the surgeon that put it in.  The cost of removal is already in what insurance was billed except for the visit copay.

    Joe

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #9
    phrannie51 said:

    Thank you John, for the

    step by step....I didn't know who was even going to do it....guess that's the Onc, then.  I've had enough numbing agents in my chest just having to use it all those months, so this sounds pretty darn easy.  Easier than the tube...

    p

    Abi-Normal Humor...

    Phrannie...

    Don't do what I did... I sinned..., LOL... I looked up the removal and watched a video of it on YouTube just before I went in... LOL.

    That raised the pucker factor by a few, LOL...

    But it was actually a lot better than the video I watched portrayed it.

    It was exactly like I mentioned above...

    Here's my abi-normal humor part...

    After he took it out, he put a few stitches in me, and the super glue stuff. He told me to lie there and be still that he'd be back in a few minutes while it dried. Well me being me..., ummmm.

    My iPhone (with the camera) was lying on a table across the room.... I had to have a few photos of the incision for posting... you know before he bandaged me up, LOL... So I had to get up from the table, slide over to my phone, take a few photos and then back to my table before he got back in, LOL...

    .PO

    JG

  • yensid683
    yensid683 Member Posts: 349
    #10
    Some cautions.....

    I too had the power port installed just before treatments started in April of last year, and my was taken out very soon after treatment ended, but not for the reasons you might anticipate.

    I developed a blood clot in the right jugular vein that was caused by the port, and put me into a 'life threatening situation' to quote my medical oncologist.  Fortunately for me, there were no complications and the port was removed in the hospital as a quick outpatient surgery, removed by the same intervention radiologist that put it in.

    Have your mom pay close attention to the possiblity of developing a clot.  Just after I finished rads, I noticed that the right side of my neck was very tender, the muscle very sore and swollen.  My doctor dismissed it as a reaction to the rads, but 5 weeks later there was no improvement and at my wife's insistence that "can't something be done?" I was sent for an ultrasound that found the clot. 

    The most disturbing thing about it was that the risk of the clot was not noted ANYWHERE or by ANYONE.  Doing my research it showed that there is a less than 5 percent risk of a clot, but when it comes to all causes of deep vein thrombosis in the jugular, almost 50 percent are caused by central venous catheterization!

    At the same time, having the port was a god-send, it made any iv treatment or blood draw so much easier than having someone hunt in my arm for a vein.

    So talk with your mom's doctor, make sure that they keep an eye on it.

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #11
    jcortney said:

    I don't think so

    I don't think the Onc does it.  In my case it's the surgeon that put it in.  The cost of removal is already in what insurance was billed except for the visit copay.

    Joe

    Same Same...

    Mine was removed by the surgeon that put it in...

    Actually...

    If any of you followed the Genral Petraeous scandal... The lady that felt threatened and was the self proclaimed Diplomatic Liason...Jill Kelley... Her husband was my surgeon for the port, LOL... Small world huh...

    JG

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #12
    yensid683 said:

    Some cautions.....

    I too had the power port installed just before treatments started in April of last year, and my was taken out very soon after treatment ended, but not for the reasons you might anticipate.

    I developed a blood clot in the right jugular vein that was caused by the port, and put me into a 'life threatening situation' to quote my medical oncologist.  Fortunately for me, there were no complications and the port was removed in the hospital as a quick outpatient surgery, removed by the same intervention radiologist that put it in.

    Have your mom pay close attention to the possiblity of developing a clot.  Just after I finished rads, I noticed that the right side of my neck was very tender, the muscle very sore and swollen.  My doctor dismissed it as a reaction to the rads, but 5 weeks later there was no improvement and at my wife's insistence that "can't something be done?" I was sent for an ultrasound that found the clot. 

    The most disturbing thing about it was that the risk of the clot was not noted ANYWHERE or by ANYONE.  Doing my research it showed that there is a less than 5 percent risk of a clot, but when it comes to all causes of deep vein thrombosis in the jugular, almost 50 percent are caused by central venous catheterization!

    At the same time, having the port was a god-send, it made any iv treatment or blood draw so much easier than having someone hunt in my arm for a vein.

    So talk with your mom's doctor, make sure that they keep an eye on it.

    Keeping An Eye

    On it...

    Just as a side note... Even after your no longer using the port, such a sPhrannie and I (when I had it for nearly two years post Dx)..., they still flush it every 6- 8 weeks. Also, I had follow-ups with my MD's every 3 months, then every four months my first and second years.

    As you said risk is very low for complications, and you should always be your own advocate for changes and things that just aren't right.

    JG

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