The Chest Port Placement procedure went off without a hitch yesterday. And while I’m not quite Darth Vader yet, I do feel like I’m much closer to being a cyborg than I was yesterday.
We checked in at 8:30 and I was prepped for the procedure with an IV and saline/anti-biotic solution.
I probably could have smiled... but I was a bit drugged
When they were ready for us I was moved down a floor to where we meet with team doing the procedure and went over all the paper work and release forms etc. At this point they showed us what it was that they were about to put into me:
The procedure was quick, and from my perspective was very much like the lymph-node biopsy I had at the end of September. For both I was given a mild sedative so that I was relaxed and then then a local anesthetic for the cutting, digging, and probing part. But unlike the lymph-node biopsy, which from my perspective took about 10 minutes (it was actually closer to an hour) the chest port placement was actually about 10 minutes.
Afterward we moved back upstairs to the bed (as pictured above) and I had to stay for about an hour and a half for monitoring before they let us go. But after a quick nap, we were soon on our way home.
I haven’t been able to see what it looks like yet since I was told to keep the surgical dressing on until later today when they’ll take it before chemo. But I can feel it. The port is located just under the skin on the other side of my collarbone from where I had the lymph-node taken out. The catheter then enters a vein (I was told they have several options and I didn’t catch which one they actually went into) and the catheter ends shortly before the vein connects back up with the heart.
It’s a little sore. It’s just above the pectoral muscle so it hurts a bit if I move my right arm around. Also it just feels tight, both from the trauma done to the area from the procedure and because I can feel the port just underneath the skin, stretching it a bit.
Now I’m just curious to see how they take this thing and plug me in. I’ll find out later today.
I loved the Bon Jovi quote. Thanks for that Tyler.
Hey Brian, you are on your road to having a portable feed bag. You just plug in and go. You can have hallway races now with the IV tree in hand.
Just a side bar, you might want to ask them to give you a prescription of lidicane. It will help when they try and plug you in. They don’t always hit the mark and it is better if you don’t feel it. Put it on about an hour or more before they plug you in.
Glad it went well, Brian! That thing is just in you now… kinda creepy, right?
Port to the heart!!! And you’re to blame!!! Darlin’ you give druuuugs…a bad name (bad name!).
You’re welcome for that. It’s been stuck in my head all day.
I’m pretty sure that it’s a vein, that’s just what they said.
This reminds me actually that I haven’t posted any pictures of my “implant” I wanted to wait until bruising went down. I’ll try and get pictures posted this week!
Did it go into a vein or an artery? I thought they wanted it to go through the body before coming back to the heart… (parden the lateness, i’m finally able to catch up on the blog!)