blood draws source

MCS · 11-09-2006, 10:07 AM

Hi all,

I have a mast on right side and will have a prophi on the other breast.

from where will they draw blood? i have a port but that is not used for mri or pet cet. so what do they put the needles?

right now i only have the left side to use and really only one good vein on my hand- the infusion nurse ruined all others prior to gettin a port

thank you

MCS (maria)

Soccermom · 11-09-2006, 10:57 AM

Dear MCS,
The lab uses my portacath for blood draws. The would not use it for MRI or other tests because it (the port) could be damaged by the substance/ and or rate of adminstration for those tests. A person must be specially trained to access your post to do a blood draw.

Marcia

KellyA · 11-09-2006, 12:48 PM

Hi Maria,

I had a mast. on the left side with lymph disection. On the right side I had a propylactic mast. (there was no lymph disection). I cannot have blood drawn or BP's etc. in the left arm, but I can in the right since they did not remove the lypmh pad. Actually, I even had my port put in on my upper right arm and sometimes still have blood drawn below it if they do not directly access the port. They do BP's and all in that arm. I was told (by all three of my docs) that you only have to avoid an arm if the nodes were removed. Some people, however have had node disections in both arms for multiple tumors and can't use either arm. When I worked for a neurologist years ago, we would access veins in peoples' feet sometimes. There are lots of places to draw blood. Don't know if this helps or not.

Love,
Kelly

tousled1 · 11-09-2006, 12:54 PM

I have blood drawn from my port. But my port is not used for MRIs or PET/CT scans. When I had my surgery (bilateral mastectomy) they used my port for the anesthesia but had to call in an oncology nurse to access the port. Since I had 26 nodes removed from my right side I can not have blood pressure, blood draws or needles in that arm.