HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post

StephN · 11-11-2009, 06:53 PM

Guess it is a good week for port removals. I am feeling OK after having mine out yesterday. Hope Colleen has a big sense of relief.

But, GOLLY, I never dreamed they might recycle my port!!! I am sure they did not recycle the first one I had in for 6 years. Unless it got sent to a 3rd world country ... And the idea that mine could have been in someone else - ick!

I asked to see my port yesterday when they finished with closure of my incision. My surgeon held it up and I could see just how LONG the catheter is. There was a possibility that it might not come out in one piece since it was so badly clotted in the inominate area of my subclavian vein. I could feel the tugging during the removal. The thought crossed my mind to ask to keep it, but I let that go.

11-11-2009, 06:53 PM	#7
StephN Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Misty woods of WA State Posts: 4,128	Re: Tales from the Surgery Waiting Room Guess it is a good week for port removals. I am feeling OK after having mine out yesterday. Hope Colleen has a big sense of relief. But, GOLLY, I never dreamed they might recycle my port!!! I am sure they did not recycle the first one I had in for 6 years. Unless it got sent to a 3rd world country ... And the idea that mine could have been in someone else - ick! I asked to see my port yesterday when they finished with closure of my incision. My surgeon held it up and I could see just how LONG the catheter is. There was a possibility that it might not come out in one piece since it was so badly clotted in the inominate area of my subclavian vein. I could feel the tugging during the removal. The thought crossed my mind to ask to keep it, but I let that go. __________________ "When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest." H.D. Thoreau Live in the moment. MY STORY SO FAR ~~~~ Found suspicious lump 9/2000 Lumpectomy, then node dissection and port placement Stage IIB, 8 pos nodes of 18, Grade 3, ER & PR - Adriamycin 12 weekly, taxotere 4 rounds 36 rads - very little burning 3 mos after rads liver full of tumors, Stage IV Jan 2002, one spot on sternum Weekly Taxol, Navelbine, Herceptin for 27 rounds to NED! 2003 & 2004 no active disease - 3 weekly Herceptin + Zometa Jan 2005 two mets to brain - Gamma Knife on Jan 18 All clear until treated cerebellum spot showing activity on Jan 2006 brain MRI & brain PET Brain surgery on Feb 9, 2006 - no cancer, 100% radiation necrosis - tumor was still dying Continue as NED while on Herceptin & quarterly Zometa Fall-2006 - off Zometa - watching one small brain spot (scar?) 2007 - spot/scar in brain stable - finished anticoagulation therapy for clot along my port-a-catheter - 3 angioplasties to unblock vena cava 2008 - Brain and body still NED! Port removed and scans in Dec. Dec 2008 - stop Herceptin - Vaccine Trial at U of W begun in Oct. of 2011 STILL NED everywhere in Feb 2014 - on wing & prayer 7/14 - Started twice yearly Zometa for my bones Jan. 2015 checkup still shows NED 2015 Neuropathy in feet - otherwise all OK - still NED. Same news for 2016 and all of 2017. Nov of 2017 - had small skin cancer removed from my face. Will have Zometa end of Jan. 2018.