I love my port! Make sure if it starts to hurt or get red you let the chemo nurses know (they do get infected sometimes). My first port ran between my clavical and another bone. It got horrible blood return (so they couldn't use it for blood draws) and after about a year got a crack in it. My new port runs through my jugular, works GREAT! My only complaint is hosptial policy to only use the port for treatments. So when I go in for scans they won't use my port unless they absolutely can't get a vein! On Tuesday I had a routine PET scan and they had to poke me 3 times before they got a vein; I almost passed out all 3 times from the digging. Yesterday for my routine MUGA (heart scan for those who get Herceptin) he got my vein after the first poke (and a lot of digging) but didn't thread it far enough in because he was hurting me so bad; and it fell out when I went into the bathroom. He did 3 more pokes, gave up and brought in someone else to do it! So a 5 minute procedure ended up taking 1/2 an hour then I still had to wait for the scan... I have so much scar tissue in my veins that when they poke them they either collapse, roll, or push the needle out... It doesn't help that I'm young and look healthy, so when I tell the technicians I have bad veins they don't believe me... My veins look great and I don't look sick. So they seem to think they'll be able to poke them... I never did A/C, I did 4 of FEC (ever 3 weeks) and 12 weekly of Taxol. Are you doing "dose dense" of A/C (every 2 weeks)? The Emend they give you for nausea helps tremendously; but it is very expensive even with the insurance coverage. It's $100 a pill, I had 3 pills every round of FEC and that cost me $50 each round! The nausea isn't as bad on the Taxol and my hair started (very slowly) growing back on Taxol; but my eyebrows and eyelashes fell out after I finished Taxol. I also went into temporary menopause with Taxol. Thankfully I only had 3 weeks of hot flashes followed by 3 months of no periods and no PMS! I now have regular periods; I miss the no periods/no PMS but don't miss the hot flashes, lol! They'll give you Effexor for hot flashes (it's an antidepressant) and if you get neuropathy (numbness in your fingers) they'll give you Neulatin (I also got it for numbness in my mastectomy incesion). I also see a rehab doc for lymphedema (arm swelling from mastectmy) and neuropathy. Well, gotta go get ready for soccer! It'll be ok, take it day by day and we're here for you! xoxo jessi |
