If you have been following along, you might remember the port I had placed the day before I started chemotherapy due to insurance authorization delays. It did not seem like a big deal at the time. I was able to get chemotherapy through the port and continue on without any issues for the first few treatments, however as the chemotherapy went on, the port incision (just above the actual port) never healed… it kept busting open, bleeding and leaking and eventually I brought it up to one of the nurses at a chemotherapy infusion. She looked at the incision and told me the incision was so thin that she could actually see the port wire. She did say that there was a stitch that needed to be removed to help the incision come together, so she was able to do that right from my chemotherapy chair! It did help over the next couple of weeks, the incision came together a bit more, however that thin skin was very sensitive and did end up opening up many more times, especially when I would do any extreme lifting or reaching (mostly when I was rock climbing). BUT of course I couldn’t stop doing what I love!
With the port being placed the day before my first chemo session, it did not allow the incision to heal. Let’s do a procedure and then inject poison into your body less than 24 hours later. The chemotherapy immediately begins killing all of your fast growing cells and the human body is already working overtime to protect itself. So advice to all cancer patients and the medical field- get the port placed in advance, allow time to heal the incision before chemotherapy infusion, and stop allowing insurance companies to dictate the timeline of healthcare!!
Mandafit 