Should superficial blood clots in infusion vein appear?

@charlotte12 I did not have chemo infusions after I was treated (hysterectomy and after a recurrence, radiation therapy) for endometrial cancer. So, I cannot directly relate to your puzzlement about why the bruising, and now the vein feels hard 3 weeks later. Is the area around the vein painful? Warm to the touch? I do want to comment that for me having a catheter in my vein for 5 hours would be very long and would cause me a lot of anxiety too. With one more infusion scheduled I can understand why you wouldn't want a port inserted at this point in time.

Other members in our Support Group will provide you with more feedback on their experiences and suggestions. I jumped in because I've been following your treatments through your other posts, sometimes commenting, and I've been thinking about you. I have a good friend who is a nurse with lots of experience with infusions and I'm going to ask her your question. Assuming I can get in contact with her within the next 24 hours (she lives in another state) I'll come back here and let you know what she says.

Thank you for your comment, my next infusion is in 3 weeks, the hard vein and the area around it do not hurt on touch, the site
does not feel warm but becomes bruised and bruising spreads, I have a weekly blood draw, which also bruises up, minimal, but not like the infusion site and no blood clots develop, no pain on touch.

i wonder if the bruising is also associated with receiving chemo meds which effects my blood? If the vein
size has changed? images of arm from chemo treatment #4

@charlotte12 I thought by now you might see some posts from other members of our support group. I'll make a note of some of our members and tag them in another post.

I did talk with my nurse friend today. She said that the bruising you experience and the superficial blood clots are somewhat expected given that the chemotherapy is administered through IV catheter. Her experience with chemotherapy infusion is that the majority of her patients had ports and so did not have the experience you describe. She also said that of the nurses she worked with many of them had been working in the infusion center for many years and like your nurses were very skilled at their work. Her co-workers were also empathic and listened carefully to their patients' worries and hoped that you were receiving that also. So, I'm sorry that my friend did not have any suggestions that might be helpful for you for your upcoming chemotherapy.

Thank you for consulting your friend and responding back to me. I just finished my 5th
IV treatment. This time I had a better experience, no blood clot has developed yet, just some bruising, no pain. It was the same nurse who I had for the first treatment. And I had no issues with the IV catheter then. So I expected that it would be the same for the next ones. I have
one treatment left. Maybe the same nurse will be available.

@charlotte12 Good news that your 5th IV treatment was a better experience for you. With one treatment left I'm hoping the same nurse will be working the day you are scheduled.

I will ask for this RN if she is working, no one told me but I finally found out that I can choose what phlebotomist shall do my blood draw, there is one who does a better job than all the other three who work the shift, no bruising, pain or second poking for a vein,....