#24 CANCER PORT REMOVAL

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Welcome back to Faith Walk with Debbie.  Seventeen months after I got the port put in, I finally got it taken out.  It helped to make my infusions and chemotherapies a lot easier to administer.  The same doctor removed it that put it in.  I thank God that the procedure went better than what I had feared.  I had a lot of people praying.  The problem was I had memories of all of many previous procedures I had had.  I couldn’t remember a lot of the nitty gritty but I knew I hated the numbing needles from before.  Because they only had to numb the area around the actual port this time, I only felt one bad numbing needle instead of many.  Pretty much all I felt was pressure after it was numbed.  Because I get claustrophobic I asked if they could again put oxygen near my nose so I could feel air movement to help.  They did and that really helped.  I also had my face mask on and I asked if there was anything else they could do cause I still felt claustrophobic.  So amazingly they took my mask off.  It’s probably because they had other material over me so I could see what they were doing.

The procedure ended up going really well.  The two things that really helped first per my request they had Christian music playing during the procedure.  The music and words from the songs helped.  The second thing, I had requested Dr. Teng who had already done two procedures for me.  If you ever have to have this type of procedure done at Reid I recommend you ask for him.  He talked to me approximately 90% of the time during the procedure.  He has an uplifting personality which really helped the mood in the room and calmed my nerves. 

It took about 30 minutes for him to stitch me up.  He does a really good job.  After the incision healed when he originally installed the port, the incision was barely noticeable.  After he was done stitching it up this time, another man put glue over it.  All of the stitches are internal and made to dissolve.  After the glue was put on, they put a big bandage over it.  I struggle with adhesives making me break out so we tried a different type this time hoping I wouldn’t break out. 

Another thing that really fascinated me was they only had to make one incision.  The port was down on my chest.  From it a tube ran under my skin up to a vein near my collarbone.  They did not do an incision at the collarbone like they did last time.  They just pulled the tube out through the opening where the port was.  I still can’t figure out how they could pull the tube out of the vein without blood coming out with it.  At one point, I asked if there was much blood and they said none.  They said they put epinephrine in me with the lidocaine numbing needle to prevent bleeding. 

The main limitation after the surgery was I had to leave the bandage on for two days.  At that time I could take a shower.  I later found out that I am not to get it wet for a week.  So I had to go back to the hospital and get clear plastic coverings to put over the gauze to help protect it from getting wet.  I’m not to get it wet until the glue comes off which takes about a week. 

They said I could take Tylenol or ibuprofen if I needed it for pain.  I did that the day of surgery but after that I was fine.

The main problem I had was the rash and welts from the adhesive on the bandage.  My skin did get really raw in some places from it.  Even after several days I was still bothered with the rash and itching. 

A restriction I had was I’m supposed to lift anything for about a week.  That was frustrating because I go twice a week for the oncology exercise program.  So I was limited on how much I could lift from my waist up.  It could have popped the stitches.  Another thing that was frustrating news…. We are in the middle of remodeling our floor with vinyl flooring.  I thought the least I could do was pull the saw down to cut the planks.  The doctor said no because he doesn’t want the saw accidently getting in my incision.

Overall I felt good from the procedure.  I was a little groggy after the surgery from the Xanax.  Then the next couple days felt pretty good until my grandson laid his head against my chest hitting the incision.  It will just take time to heal.  Even after a few days if I bent over and tried to pick something light up I felt irritation in the incision area.  I’m grateful the procedure was a success and that it went much better than I had feared.

So next thing on the agenda will be a mammogram and cat scan the end of November or first of December.  After that I will see the oncologist.  I’m praying the report will show I’m cancer free and healthy!