[NanaJoni]

Marcia - I had similar problems last summer when I was doing chemo. They suspected that I had what they called a "sheath" at the end of the catheter part of the port. There is a drug they injected which is supposed to dissolve that and it worked a couple of times. Finally, the port quit working all together. So they did a "port-a-gram" with dye and found that the catheter part was pulling against the vein wall when they tried to draw from it. I have lost about 55 lbs and this was a "contributing factor". So that port came out and a new one went in the same place. It never worked - was installed incorrectly. So I had a different doctor install the third one on the other side of my chest. He put the catheter part going up into the jugular vein and I've had no problems since. I'm doing Herceptin every three weeks so have had no need to flush. During the problem time last summer, I did have to have treatment once through a vein and it was not pleasant. I'm also on warfarin and have to have PT/INR blood tests done about every 10-14 days and they can't use the port at my family practice drs office (no one in the lab is comfortable accessing it and they have to pull several waste vials before getting a test sample). So there are lots of possible problems with ports - hope yours resolves quickly and without having to do the changes I did.