Post op Day 3 Port Access

Today (1/19/18) is Friday, which means I had an infusion, and it was my first time having my port accessed. I put the Emla cream on as instructed before my infusion so by the time I got there my port was pretty numb. Getting accessed was a lot easier than I thought it would be, thanks to the Emla cream I hardly felt the needle stick.

Overall I was a lot more comfortable during my infusion with my port than with a standard IV. And I didn’t have to sit through four hours of a painful burning sensation because of the potassium in my infusion. The potassium was actually damaging the veins in my arms because I get infusions three times a week.

Having my port is still kind of weird, the incision is still pretty sore and uncomfortable. I’m definitely still aware of the catheter part in my neck, though my nurses say the feeling will go away with time. My chest is still swelled too, that makes it a bit difficult to feel for the palpation bumps on the septum of my port to know where to stick the needle. I’m also getting a noticeable bruise on my chest, if it’s from surgery or accessing my port I don’t know. But so far everything is going great, just still waiting on all my home health stuff to get set up which I hope happens soon.

(Sorry this post seems choppy and random I’m really tired.)