softie
Posts:
1,070
From:
Croydon, Surrey
Registered:
07-Feb-2004
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Re: having a portacath fitted.
Posted:
11-Dec-2006 19:59
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The hospital stay depends on how fast the patient recovers, I was in for about a week after mine was put in under general anaesthetic. I have heard of people having a local and coming out the next day!
The kind of anaesthetic used depends on the decision of the surgeon and the advise of the anaesthetist, you will have to ask when you reach the ward.
The procedure to fit a port doesn't hurt, even if under local anaesthetic. You may feel some not-painful pulling and a few slight twinges, but that should be all. After the procedure you are likely to have a stiff place that hurts if you move to much, but it will rapidly ease off.
The size of scar varies. I had two scars - a rather thick, pink scar about 1 inch long just below my collar bone, two inches below that and a much less noticable scar that curved round the port, like a "C" about an inch across. However, being a bloke nobody cared what I'd end up looking like afterwards, and you may be able to request that yours is put in somewhere out-of-site.
Ports do, occasionally, get infected and can cause septicaemia. However the risks are vastly less than for a Hickman line, since while the port is unused it is protected from infection by the skin lying over it. The critical time comes when the port is accessed, and any person accessing it has to use a strict procedure to sterilise the area over the port.
My port lasted 10 years before it finally became infected. Even when it did so it did not cause serious septicaemia, though any septicaemia is worrying. Most ports reach the end of their lives because they get blocked, not because they get infected! (Mine didn't block because I am on warfarin, so my blood was less prone to clotting inside the end of the catheter.)
I hope this helps. Take care, stay well and try to avoid worrying over this. I find the worry is always, always, worse than what happens at the end!
Richard.
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