Anyone ever have to deal with a broken port?

[mercyriver]

My husband is at the hospital getting a dye injected x-ray done of his port. He went in to have it flushed this afternoon and apparently was in a lot of pain when they injected the saline. They told him they think it is broken.

I asked my husband how it could have possibly broken, he said because they make things cheap. At least he is finding humor in it!

And of course, I am at home with the 3 kids and have no idea what is going on until he updates me.

Good news is they won't do surgury if it is broken, at least yet. They told him at the cancer center because he is on Coumadin right now he has to wait 2 days to have surgury.

Even cancer free our lives are never dull! If it isn't one thing it is another.

Becki

[Margaret]

I dealt with this!

This is Boyce - margaret's husband.

My port cause significant clotting in my juggular vein on my right side, and I dealt with the dye injection and swelling and all that cool stuff.

My port clogged repeatedly and it took many flushes and patience to get it working. They did dye testing and also thought of putting a new one in. During my last cycle they pulled the port out altogether due to the clotting and flushing problems.

Now, I have chronic DVT in my upper right side. Generally, no major deal but it does cause swelling. I was on Lovenox shots coumadin for 4 months, with limited success.

Dr. says Advil daily for pain and swelling, got fitted last week for a compression sleeve for use when flying or whenever swelling is worse.

You're not alone, but honestly, compared to the darn cancer, It was not the worst part of my ordeal. But it is inconvenient and uncomfortable at times.

Tell your hubby to hang in theer and tell the Dr. to stop shopping for ports at the Dollar store!

Boyce

[Margaret]

Becki...one more question...he is not in chemo is he? Did they give you a reason for leaving it in place? I know some keep them in long after chemo in case they need it and others have it removed as soon as chemo is finished.

It would have come in handy at SK during my bi-lateral RPLND to have a port to use..but they had to remove it early as I said in the earlier post. BUt once the RPLND was over, I would have wanted it removed.

[mercyriver]

Out comes the cath...

Well, we didn't think they would do surgury tonight, but they did have to go in after his catheter. The catheter either broke off or slipped off. The will send both parts off to the manufacture after the pull the port part out on Wed. They have to wait until he has been off his comadin for 2 days before they take the port in his arm out.

The catheter was floating around in his heart. The surgen said this does happen, but he has never seen it happen with my husband particular brand of port. And not ever 6 months after it was put in. That is why they send it back off to where it came from to find out what went wrong.

They sent another catheter up his groin artery into his heart and fished it out. He got to watch the whole thing. Thankfully it went simply and without any complications. They made him wait for 30 mintues and then sent him home. He will back off to work tomorrow.

They also think it may have been at least part of the cause of his A-Fib. Go figure huh? I think I remeber mentioning to someone, what if it is his port irritating his heart?....Nah..that wouldn't happen! Dah!

Wed. he has his CT and then they are going to try to get him back in to get the port out.

The strangest things happen with my poor husband!

The worst part to all of this, today was his 30th birthday. What a birthday present eh?

And Boyce, to answer your question, he was done with chemo at the end of March. The Onc wanted to waint until July to take it out, just to be sure. So after this CT....hopefully we won't have to have another put in!!! Positive thoughts!

Becki

[Margaret]

Yikes Becki!!! I am glad they got it out. Dealing with Boyce's port issues became a daily thing. We would go to the cancer center and loud cheers would erupt if they could access it. Sometimes they had to stick him 5 to 7 times a day...he was very grumpy to say the least . With any luck he will never need it again!!

He has you by his side and I think that is about the best birthday gift anyone could ever ask for!

Hugs and best wishes....and HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Margaret

[mercyriver]

Thank you Margaret. We finished the evening off last night with a nice dinner (delayed but nice). I can't imagine having to deal with port issues ever time...how frustrating. I don't know if I would take a constant problem over our strange ones that seem to just pop up out of the blue!

And Robert, I am not sure that the surgeon did any more looking aroudn while they were in there, but they were fairly convinced it was the catheter causing his heart problems, one way or another, from the start. The nurse also mentioned to us that Chemo can easily cause A-Fib. Pete mentioned his Onc didn't think it could be from the chemo. She gently reminded him that cardiology isn't really the Oncologist's specialty.

Today should be a much better day!

Becki

[mercyriver]

Actually the nice thing Robert is that the Hospital that fished the catheter out and will remove the rest of the port is a compleatly different hospital then who put it in. And they are a much smaller at that.

So they had no reserves questioning the hospital that put it in and that maybe they were the cause. So while we may not know when the solve the problem, I feel they will try their best to get to the bottom. And as my father-in-law put it, "document everything".

Becki

[Scott]

...today was his 30th birthday. What a birthday present eh?

I hope you'll make up for it later with a really big celebration!

[mercyriver]

Actually I talked to him earlier about what time his port removal is tomorrow and he told me we are going out to eat dinner tonight. I asked him if there was any reason. He told me he would tell me later. We don't go out to eat on a whim for any old reason....

He has been working at getting a promotion at work for over a year now, he finished his MBA last year. So I am hoping we might be celebrating that tonight as well!

We can always use some good in our lives!

Becki