Lolly
09-13-2004, 12:59 AM
Lola, I urge you to get in to your onc as soon as possible, and I speak from personal experience.
Your symptoms COULD be heart related, as in heart attack, and your concern about it possibly being a port malfunction is justified. You must have your heart checked out, AND you need to have a dye study of your port; they need to make sure they see all of the catheter still attached to the port, as a fractured catheter can result in symptoms simalar to a heart attack if the catheter lands in your heart chamber.
This happened to me, one morning I felt pain in my chest, faint and breatnless when I got up to do anything, so not wanting to be a pest(and also not wanting to think it was my heart) I didn't call in. The symptoms resolved in a few days(!) and I decided it was nothing. However, when I went in for my next Herceptin my port would not infuse or draw, and to make a long story short the next morning found me in the hospital having an angioplasty-type procedure done to retrieve a 4 inch fragment of catheter tubing from my heart, where it had landed after breaking off. My heart symptoms were the result of the fragment landing in my heart; I later found out I was extremely lucky it stayed in my heart and didn't travel on to my lungs.
This type of complication IS rare, but all of us with ports need to be aware that any heart symptoms or shortness of breath need to be checked out by a doctor, and the possibility of port malfunction must be addressed.
Your symptoms COULD be heart related, as in heart attack, and your concern about it possibly being a port malfunction is justified. You must have your heart checked out, AND you need to have a dye study of your port; they need to make sure they see all of the catheter still attached to the port, as a fractured catheter can result in symptoms simalar to a heart attack if the catheter lands in your heart chamber.
This happened to me, one morning I felt pain in my chest, faint and breatnless when I got up to do anything, so not wanting to be a pest(and also not wanting to think it was my heart) I didn't call in. The symptoms resolved in a few days(!) and I decided it was nothing. However, when I went in for my next Herceptin my port would not infuse or draw, and to make a long story short the next morning found me in the hospital having an angioplasty-type procedure done to retrieve a 4 inch fragment of catheter tubing from my heart, where it had landed after breaking off. My heart symptoms were the result of the fragment landing in my heart; I later found out I was extremely lucky it stayed in my heart and didn't travel on to my lungs.
This type of complication IS rare, but all of us with ports need to be aware that any heart symptoms or shortness of breath need to be checked out by a doctor, and the possibility of port malfunction must be addressed.