Port Placement!! 3/22/2010

THREE CHEERS FOR A PORT BECAUSE THIS MEANS NO MORE NEEDLE STICKS!!! YAY YAY YAY!!! Getting a port is soooo important when you have cancer. I will be getting chemo every two weeks, blood drawn often, and CT/PET/MUGA scans to monitor my heart and to see if the chemo is working. All of these require a needle stick, which can be painful (especially after multiple sticks that leave bruising and limit the number of veins that are workable for IVs). Instead of needle sticks, everything can happen through my port. They will numb the surface of the skin with lidocaine, then access my port through what is called a huber needle. No pain and easy as heck! Another important reason for the port is that chemo drugs can damage the arm veins and can be very painful, so it is safer to get the port and put all drugs through there. When it's all healed, my port will look like a little button under my skin, hardly noticeable at all with no limitations (though they say it may affect my golf swing, hopefully in my case it'll be in a good way- hah).

I went to Shadyside Hospital for my port placement. I had to be there at 6am and my procedure was scheduled for 8am, this meant wake-up at 430am and a pick-up from mom and dad at 530am. Soooooo early. As soon as we got there, the nurse got me checked in, my vitals were checked, and my IV was placed. I was set up in room 512 with my own bathroom, bed and TV to keep me and my family comfortable before and after the procedure. It was only a matter of time before my bed was wheeled downstairs to radiology which is where my procedure was done.

While I was in the holding room in radiology, the nurses assured me that even though I will be "awake" for the procedure, I would feel very comfortable without a worry. They first gave me a one-time dose of cefazolin to decrease any risk of infection. The doctor met with me about placement of the port being on the left side because they wanted to allow complete healing of my biopsy which was performed on the right side. They then moved me to the procedure room where I received fentanyl and versed for "conscious sedation." The combination sure put me in a happy place. Dr. Kevin McCluskey inserted my port with live x-ray technology for the placement. He mentioned during the procedure that my swollen lymph nodes (due to lymphoma) made the procedure a little more difficult. Another slight problem that we experienced during the procedure was when my heart got "tickled." This slight touching of my heart made my heart rate skyrocket instantly from 70 to 180. They gave me labetalol stat and this controlled my heart rate instantly lowering it back to 70. They called for an EKG stat but my heart rate was already under control by the time they got there and it wasn't necessary.


After the procedure there was very little pain, just a lot of awkward tightness and I was still verry sleepy from my cocktail of meds. I was brought back to 512 where my nurse, Patricia Sweeney took amazing care of me. She checked my vitals often, and answered any questions that my family had about the port and what to expect after. I was given an information packet about my port. My port is the "SMART PORT CT with Vortex Technology" made by AngioDynamics. The most amaaaazing thing about this port is that you can put CT contrast through it. (most ports/older versions do not have this capability and I would have to get needle sticks for CTs throughout my treatment) The packet came with an ID card, key ring tag, and rubber bracelet indicating my type of port. I feel like I need to name my port but I still haven't come up with a name- hah.