Triple Negative Breast Cancer: What treatments are you having?

A port

Your infusion nurse will not only use the port to administer your bags of treatments, but also to draw blood before the infusions to make sure your white blood count is in range so that you can have chemo. Therefore a port is the way to go in my opinion. My port surgery was not a big deal.

Beat wishes to you, Cindy

I first had 6 rounds 1/3wks. I did not have a port and I did just fine. Some chemo regimens require a port, but mine did not. I had a second round of 12, 1/wk. the second time, a port was recommended due the the frequency. Unfortunately, my lung was punctured when the port was installed. I was in the hospital for a week and my treatment was delayed. There are two ways to install a port and I was later told that the one that was used to install mine was more likely to cause that. Ask some questions about how it will be done. It is surgery and not a simple matter.

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.

What are the 2 ways for port surgery? I have had a lot of problems with my ports.

Above the thumb?

I have a vein that is more pronounced in my right hand that is between my thumb and my wrist (between the thumb and first finger) they usually poke me in the vein that is above the middle finger and that hurts a lot. The vein between the thumb and first finger was painless.

The method used for my placement was subclavian. There are one or two other methods. I was advised that subclavian has more risk of lung puncture. I was unusual, as lung puncture is rare.

I haven’t had that type of port surgery. Why did you have subclavian if it has more risk?

So you are saying about a vein between your thumb and the finger next to it? And yes, it really messes up my hand and it stays horribly bruised for months.