chest port

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rustypipes12
rustypipes12 Member Posts: 9
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi, I'm a newbee, I just had a chestport installed so I can start my chemo next week. The hospital gave me a packet that was supposed to have a dvd in it to show what I'm supposed to do in regard to changing my dressing and taking care of it. It wasn't in the packet, does anyone have any info on care for these things? I just got it Thursday (5/21) and it's a Dignity CT port.
Thanks

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  • kmygil
    kmygil Member Posts: 876 Member
    #2
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    Port
    Hi RustyPipes! Welcome to the board! I don't understand what sort of dressing change you're supposed to do. When they insert it, you pretty much don't have to do a whole lot. The maintenance of the port is done by the chemo nurses when you go in for treatment. After insertion, I just took off the original dressing after a couple of days and I was good to go, apart from a little soreness. The port you have is under the skin, right? You should be closing up pretty quickly from the incision, and thereafter the port just has to be flushed regularly. Perhaps you can find the information on the manufacturer's web page. Let us know. Meanwhile, welcome again!

    Kirsten
  • bdee
    bdee Member Posts: 304
    #3
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    Port
    I received my port on a Thursday and the doctor didn't tell the nurses how I was supposed to take care of it either, so I looked at the website. I didn't even have an original dressing, or it was taken off before I woke up.
    The website said, no care. Just keep water from directly hitting the site and the chemo nurses do the rest.
  • Annabelle41415
    Annabelle41415 Member Posts: 6,742 Member
    #4
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    Port
    Welcome to the board. Sorry you had to discover us but we are a great bunch of people with a lot of support, caring, and information.

    I just had my port installed a little over a week ago. I believe it was a "Power Port". I did have a dressing on it just for two days and was told not to take a shower or get it wet for one week. I didn't have to do anything special for it except take the bandage off.

    Mine is installed underneath the skin on the right side on my collar bone. Hope this helps a little.

    Kim
  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    #5
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    Here is mine
    I never got a packet, port one day, chemo the next day.
    Maybe someone else can answer or maybe check online. Sometimes the manufacturers website has other info. You never know.
    -phil
    PS: love your name ;-)
    Here is mine
    In Chest, Hepatic Pump and a wrenched back.
    port
  • rustypipes12
    rustypipes12 Member Posts: 9
    #6
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    Annabelle41415 said:

    Port
    Welcome to the board. Sorry you had to discover us but we are a great bunch of people with a lot of support, caring, and information.

    I just had my port installed a little over a week ago. I believe it was a "Power Port". I did have a dressing on it just for two days and was told not to take a shower or get it wet for one week. I didn't have to do anything special for it except take the bandage off.

    Mine is installed underneath the skin on the right side on my collar bone. Hope this helps a little.

    Kim

    chestport
    Thanx to everyone for the answers! The nurse at the hospital had said something about changing the dressing every two days and not to get it wet, but I thought there was something about not putting gauze back on over the port (just the clear patch). I have a "Dignity CT port" whatever that is and it seems to be healing fine except for the bruiseing around it. I guess they'll take the stitches out tomorrow when I go for my chemo. I'm already on a cocktail of antibiotics because my incision from my resection had an infection and opened up and is draining. It's just about healed now which is good because when it first opened, every time I touched my stomach or bent over, I sounded like a squeaky toy and my neighbor's Husky would go nuts! A couple times he jumped the fence and sat on my front porch and howled until I'd come out and through his toy for him. I still don't like the way he looks at me lately!

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