May 29, '24 - Port implant

[Warning: mentions of medical procedures and blood]

The weirdest thing I’ve seen, and pretty much the only time I got woozy thinking about it, was when it was explained how they actually planned to inject the chemicals into me. They basically put a little bottle neck inside your chest, and the other end of this is attached to a tube that snakes its way up and over your collar bone and then back down (get ready) into your Superior Vena Cava, named because it is a very large vein leading directly into your heart.

The exciting part of this educational briefing I got prior to the surgery was that to remove the port, they would just pull it out of the vein, similar to removing a trachea tube. This actually made me a bit squeamish I’ll report, but the explanation of why this is ok was actually interesting.

Turns out, and this makes perfect sense after hearing it, the large veins of your body have very low pressure as compared to high pressure in smaller veins. This makes perfect sense, larger volume of flow, same pressure per cm² so this means the Superior Vena Cava has relatively low pressure.

Thus when the tube is removed from this vein, there is very little bleeding, and the hole simply heals over quickly.

I’m still not looking forward to having it removed.

Surgery

I was highly nervous for this procedure due to the education I’d received, but actually should not have been. One of the reasons I was nervous was because this was not done under total anesthetic, instead I’d be under a ‘twilight state’. The thought of being conscious while they were jamming a jar in my chest and running a tube up into my heart was not one I was comfortable with.

However, they brought me into the OR, with a lot of happy chatting, and draped a tent over my head so I didn’t really see anything that was going on. While I chatted and joked with the surgeons, I could feel them poking and prodding, but after what seemed to me like 15min I was still waiting for them to begin when one said, “Ok, were finished!” WHAT? I didn’t even think they’d made the first incision. Still blows my mind how disconnected they can make you from your own body.

Fiona brought me a cookie (or brownie, who knows, I was doped up) in the recovery room. This has been a tradition since I did this for her after the birth of our children. It is highly recommended.

Healing afterwards

The incisions were sealed up with crazy glue (serious) and they would simply fall off in a bath/shower after the wounds had hopefully healed. As far as pain goes, it was a bit sensitive in that area, but otherwise ok. I didn’t really get used to the feeling of the tube that draped over my collar bone, that still is something that is like having someone lean on your shin with an elbow. It doesn’t hurt, but… really, get the f’ off me.

Port access

The whole point of this procedure was to allow for access to your veins without having to make a new IV line each time they do chemo, or have to take blood… which they do two times every three weeks.

They recommend you cover the port site with Lidocaine prior to the access, but I forgot the first time! I was rather concerned it would hurt due to this, but honestly, since it is just going into the port they use a much smaller needle than if it was an IV, so it was the easiest shot I’ve been given thus far. (I did use the Lidocaine there after though, jic.)

The blood was drawn easily for the test and off I went to the first chemo injection, which was as easy as plugging a USB into a computer.

I have evolved to have accessible ports.