Port to stay in

[Linda2]

I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one. The port doesn't bother me at all. It's great when they need to draw blood, because there is no pain. Thanks for all your responses. I feel much better.

God bless you all.

[KellyA]

I may be clueless and wrong, so please please correct me if I am, but I am a stage 2b with 3 positive lymph nodes, vascular invasion, and er/pr- as well as Her2 +, and I have been given an 80+% chance of beating this disease. As much as the other 20% scares me to death (and its something that I deal with alot), the fact of the matter is that I have a very good chance of winning this fight. My onc. is the same way about ports, and prefers to leave them in for a bit, just to make sure- and I am going to leave it in for a little while after my Herceptin is finished, but then it is "Adios! Hope to never see you again!"

Everybody in this thread has the same or better chances. My new motto is, "live like you won, not like you lost". I'll deal with setbacks as they come, and if that means putting another port in down the road, then I will. Hopefully that day will never come. This site has given me so much more optimism about my disease and thanks to you all, I will never look at life the same. :-)

Love, Kelly

[Stephanie B.]

I have had my port in since my initial surgery in Dec. 2004. When I finished my 1st round of Herceptin, my Onc and I decided to leave it in for another year so from April 2005 until October 2005 I went in weekly to be flushed. I am now glad I left it in because my tumor markers went up and spots showed up on my liver in a Pet Scan and I had to start up with weekly Herceptin again in November. It is much better to use the port than a weekly IV.


Steph

[MJo]

This is interesting, because one women in my support group was Stage II and another was Stage III, both Her2 positive, and their oncologists recommended removing their ports soon after treatment ended. I remember both women during group said "maybe I should leave it in," but both had it removed. I wonder if oncologist opinions vary from practice to practice, or even state to state.

[juanita]

I had a port with the first onc that I went to and when I quit him my surgeon removed the port. And then I did rads and switched to a new onc, where I did more chemo and herceptin. I never got another port put back in and was very lucky that I never really had any problems with them finding veins. There was only once they had big problems when it was a different nurse and she just wasn't getting it. A lady I didn't know who was there with her daughter came over and held my hand because she hated seeing me go through that. Still took a few pokes but I was more relaxed. I am so glad so many of you don't have problems with your ports. I hated mine. It was really uncomfortable and I was very conscious(sp?) of it. And the nurses at that oncs office could never access it unless I was laying back almost on my head.

[Linda2]

I wonder why some ports didn't work. A few women that were getting infusions when I did had to lie down, stand up or whatever to draw blood.

Is the actual wire in your neck vein? They never told me how the port actually works, just the risk factors.

[Stephanie B.]

I have never had any problems with them using my port. Occasionally they will need me to recline back a little or raise my arm when they draw blood. It must depend on how or where the port is put in.

[tricia keegan]

My Onc had mine removed about two weeks after my last herceptin so I think Dr's just vary on this although it did occour to me he did it to avoid the chemo nurse's spending their time flushing ports that are not needed than dealing with the patients who needed them more.My clinic is always very busy and the nurse's dashing around.
I felt a little nervous having it out but am glad now as it did bother me and I have a long way to travel to the clinic if I was just going to have the port flushed.
Hopefully I'll never need it again and agree with Kelly on that.
Tricia