Replacement of portacath.

[Naive]

After 7 months of complaints that my arm, chest, shoulder and neck hurt when my port was being used. With bruising, swelling, leaking and skin discolouration. I had a portagram performed which I was verbally told was "normal". So I persevered through two more treatments with awful pain. I then refused point blank to have them use my port. Today the oncologist informed me that the portagram showed the port was old and worn out and leaking and extravasating and needs urgent replacement. I'm so frustrated that I had to refuse for them to use it before any action was taken.

Now, because I'm overdue for treatment, they are going to remove the old port and replace it in radiology under local anaesthetic on Monday. I had the last one as a full general anaesthetic in theatre. Has anyone had a port replaced in X-ray? I'm a bit nervous, especially as I haven't had a lot of reason to be confident in the system lately.

Thanks

Carol

[lisa3112]

Hi, sorry you have been treated so badly. Not sure if its the same but I had a hickman line inserted in radiology. They injected a local anaesthetic and used fentanyl and midazolam IV. It was painless just pressure. Good luck!

[Naive]

Thanks for your answer Lisa. I've decided that as I don't have any choice, then, there's no point being nervous. If it needs doing, it needs doing and that's all there is to it. Luckily I don't have any fears of needles or procedures etc so as long as the Doctor uses plenty of local anaesthetic I should be ok.

I'm relieved that the old port is coming out because I've been getting lung problems when it's being used and I've just read that clots in the blood vessels near the catheter tip (SVC) can break off and cause very small PEs. That would explain the X-ray changes, crackles, wheezes etc, without fever.

Thank you again.

Carol

[Naive]

Hi, just letting you know that I've had the port replaced. I was awake through the removal of the old port and placing the new port although I was given IV Fentanyl to prevent pain. It took about 3-3.5 hours all up.

The old port was very hard to remove and the Doctor had to cut it away from the scarring. When he finally got it out he gave a whoop of joy. The new port is now on the left side. The port itself was placed under the clavicle and centrally to the incision which runs longitudinally (ie direction head to toe) and about 4 cms from the incision. He then punctured the jugular in the neck and tunnelled the catheter up to that puncture and threaded it down the jugular and into the SVC. All incisions are sutured and I need to have them removed in about 10 days. There is extensive bruising and swelling and quite a lot of oozing. I've already had the dressings changed twice.

The good news...it was almost completely painless. The only bit that was a bit uncomfortable was when the Doctor was stitching the larger incision of the new port. He mustn't have injected enough local anaesthetic and I could feel him stitching (very sharp) but I thought it didn't matter because it wasn't too bad and I tossed up whether it was worth more local anaesthetic for a few more stitches...I decided it wasn't.

Every test and procedure is a learning experience.

[lisa3112]

Oh I bet you're relieved thats over! That is a really long time to stay still! i'm sure the new portacath will run like a dream. Good luck with everything 😊