YAY! Port removal.

Primavera said:

It's probably because of the drug

They say doxorubicin is probably the strongest one out there. And maybe it's because she has to do it by hand, not a drip. Don't know. Maybe it's not true. But I'll make sure to remind the MRI people, although she said they should know. And she said my blood work before every treatment will be a poke in the finger. Let's see.

I had a port installed before chemo, but for me, the Adriamycin was an injection through the port, not a drip since it needed to be delivered within a certain number of minutes. I know the nurses were always very careful handling this drug since it's a vesicant and, if not delivered correctly, can damage the surrounding tissues. I wouldn't have thought this would still be an issue days after the injection, but since I had it delivered via the port, that may not have been a consideration for me.

Unlike many of the women here, I was told by the oncology nurses to never let anyone access my port except for the chemo treatments. All my blood tests were taken from an elbow vein draw.

By the way, as far as I know I did not suffer any heart damage from the Adriamycin.

cmb said:

Adriamycin

I had a port installed before chemo, but for me, the Adriamycin was an injection through the port, not a drip since it needed to be delivered within a certain number of minutes. I know the nurses were always very careful handling this drug since it's a vesicant and, if not delivered correctly, can damage the surrounding tissues. I wouldn't have thought this would still be an issue days after the injection, but since I had it delivered via the port, that may not have been a consideration for me.

Unlike many of the women here, I was told by the oncology nurses to never let anyone access my port except for the chemo treatments. All my blood tests were taken from an elbow vein draw.

By the way, as far as I know I did not suffer any heart damage from the Adriamycin.

My blood draws were all through the port after I got one, but they were done by my chemo nurse, rather than the regular lab. Since I did the first chemo sessions without a port, I didn't realize the regular lab didn't do blood draws through ports and mistakenly made an appointment with them. When I showed up and they couldn't do it through the port, I ended up in tears after the ordeal (for me) of getting the port, and then to be told the blood draw wouldn't be through it. Fortunately, my gyn/onc's administrative assistant stepped in, explained it to me, and arranged for me to get the draw from my chemo nurse, where I continued to get it done from then on. Since I haven't had the port removed, I'm still seeing my chemo nurse for the blood draws before my 3-month check ups. Once I have it out, I will be back to cringing at the "regular" draws.