I had a port and it meant my hands were free for my infusions and it also meant there was no issue finding a vein for my infusion - I had my first infusion and they had a challenge finding the vein - not pleasant. The hardest part of the port implant was the IV in my hand - after the fact I found that I could request lidocaine before the IV was inserted. I do that every time I need an IV in my hand. Sometimes they are able to provide the lidocaine other times not - but for me the IV in the hand is extremely painful - either that or the technicians aren't gentle. I recently had an IV for a colonoscopy and instead of inserting the IV in the middle of my hand she inserted it in the vein above the thumb and that was painless.

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