How to use a Wonky Port for better access

The oncology nurses have now accessed my port twice since the really awful experience three times ago. Now, one nurse straddles me with her fingers pushing the skin over the edges of the port….so that it is flat and upright against my chest muscles. The 2nd nurse then moves in with the needle to piece the skin. It still isn’t pleasant….either the pressure of having the port pushed that hard into the muscle…but the actual need poke isn’t great even with the lidocaine cream. But, this is soooo far better than all those other attempts that have been made over the past two months.

As of Wednesday, I started my last half of chemo. I now have 5 more infusions to go to complete the 6 rounds. However, my local oncologist said that Mayo hadn’t specifically said how much chemo….just 4-6 rounds, as tolerated, as she wanted me to know that we ARE starting the 4th round, so I “could” quit if I wanted to do that.

However, I started chemo about 2 weeks later than they usually like to do after surgery, and then missed the first day 8 infusion due to spending a week in the hospital with blood clots to my leg and lungs. So, I feel that if there’s a chance this chemo does anything, it would be better to push myself further and get it as much of the 6 rounds as possible.

This round, the side effect of the queasiness and dry heaves started earlier…the day after chemo. It had been starting 3 days after. It was only in the morning though….and fairly mild. I expect tomorrow will be a bit worse, but you can never know how each week will go I guess. It will be a quiet 4th of July.