Port pictures

[dahliafaolan]

Here are the pictures of the port I promised. In the picture where I'm pointing, my finger is actually right next to the port.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d190/dahliarox/Lexisoneyear307.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d190/dahliarox/Lexisoneyear308.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d190/dahliarox/Lexisoneyear309.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d190/dahliarox/Lexisoneyear310.jpg

[Gymp]

Hi Dahli,
I'm confused,(not an unusual thing),How do they access it?Do they have to break skin each time it needs accessing"

How does the scar on your neck relate to the one on your chest?

When you first mentioned the port I envisioned a piece of tubing coming out with some sort of cap on it until they needed to use it.

If these are really dense questions please bear with me.

Gymp

[dahliafaolan]

Hi Dahli,
I'm confused,(not an unusual thing),How do they access it?Do they have to break skin each time it needs accessing"

How does the scar on your neck relate to the one on your chest?

When you first mentioned the port I envisioned a piece of tubing coming out with some sort of cap on it until they needed to use it.

If these are really dense questions please bear with me.

Gymp

Hey Gymp. They're not dense questions. I asked them too. The port is actually right beneath my finger in the picture where I'm pointing. It's under the skin. All they do is feel for the three bumps under my skin and stick the needle in the middle of the three bumps. And the scar in my neck is where the tubing went in. The first scar on my chest is where they put the reservoir or whatever they want to call it where the needle actually sticks in. The scar in my neck is where they ran the tubing into my jugular vein. If that's about as clear as mud, let me know and I'll try to get someone to translate what I said to English. lol

[Gymp]

Actually it's much clearer now Dahli.Kinda neat the way they gotta break skin to access the reservoir,you're risk of any type of infection is reduced immensely.Especially cool is the fact you'll never have to worry about some nurse not being able to find a good vein again.

Gymp

[Summer25]

I would have to have a central line if they had to break the skin...lol. I can't handle any type of needle sticks especially neck or chest. I almost passed out when they tried to put a PICC line in my arm. Plus I almost passed out when I stayed to watch my friend's child get an IV in his head. The little one did too. Turned blue and everything. My friend who is on dialysis has a fistula in her arm where they basically brought a big vein right to the surface of the skin. If you touch her arm you can feel the blood rushing through. I could never do that. I had a central line for my shunt malfunction. The only bad part was changing the bandage. It was neat though. A few of the ports stopped working after a while though. So, by the end of the antibiotic treatments I only had one working one left.

[dahliafaolan]

It actually doesn't hurt that much. I thought I would have a lot of trouble with it, but it hurts much less than an arm stick. It's not like when you have to have a regular IV. I've had jugular and head sticks too. This was nothing like it. The pain of it was comparable to if you've accidentally pricked your finger on a pin or something. To me it sort of feels like only the first layer of skin felt it or something.