I’m happy to report that I had my port removed on July 25^th. It was an annoying little thing but it saved my veins. Sadly, without a port, the chemotherapy would have ruined many of my veins. I’m glad that I made the decision to have the port “installed” but I’m also happy to have chemo completed and to have the port removed. For me, the port stuck out a bit from my chest and caused a little sore on my collar bone where the tube passed to my neck. The sore took weeks to heal due to my weakened immune system. It was  also under my skin, closer to the tube so a Band-Aid or topical ointment wouldn’t have helped.

My seat belt always put pressure on the port causing a little pain at first and then a minor annoyance. Probably the most painful would be anytime my little guy, Ethan, was sitting on my lap and he pressed his head back against me. That would actually cause me to scream out in pain. Suffice it to say, I had a love/hate relationship with my port.

I’ll get to the point – On the 25^th, in the early afternoon, I went to the hospital to have the port removed. It’s considered a very minor surgery (I’m not sure if I need to include it in my list of surgeries, that’s how minor it is) so, I had to fill out the paperwork again. I got a little bit annoyed with this and in a couple of sections that I knew hadn’t changed, I just put “please see previous paperwork”. I was still filling out paperwork when they took me back to the prep room. The people seemed to be in a rush to prep me…and then I waited about an hour before I was taken back to the surgery room. But, I did get to watch most of an episode of Friends while I waited. I’d forgotten how funny that show is. 🙂

They wheeled me back to the surgery room, asked me what kind of music I liked and I had a better answer this time. I asked for some Maroon 5. They stream Pandora so I figured I would get other artists with the same type of music. I love the song “Moves Like Jagger”. No blood pressure cuff this time. But, they did have a humongous drape for me. I couldn’t see what was going on once they put that over me. While the physician assistant numbed the area with lidocaine, I said “ouch” once and then made faces behind the drape. The nurse peaked around the drape to make sure I was ok and saw me making faces. Hahaha. Yes, it hurt but I was being a little melodramatic. I told him I was fine.

I felt pressure as they cut my skin and tugged out the port. Then the nurse had to put pressure on my neck while the tube was removed as well. They added more lidocaine a bit deeper, behind where the port was. I’m not sure how they cauterized that but soon they were sewing me up which I felt, not in a painful way, just in a “I now know how fabric feels” kind of way. Hopefully that makes sense.   

Finally, they added the surgical glue and rolled me back to my prep room. All-in-all, the appointment took about three hours. I was starving and craving Wendy’s. I saw a Wendy’s commercial while I was watching Friends. The advertising totally worked on me. Yes, it was a delicious celebratory dinner and yes, I did have a Diet Coke. Yum!!