Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Mediport Surgery

I was a little surprised to find out that my surgeon wouldn't be doing the mediport implant, but rather a trained radiologist. I believe that the proper title is an interventional radiologist.

At any rate, it was about a 90 minute procedure where I received two incisions. One was a small one where the catheter (tube) connects to a vein near my collarbone and the other was in my upper right chest where they put in a Bard dual chestport.

I have to keep a Medical Alert card with me now that explains that I have this implanted port with catheter in me. It gives the product code, lot number, where located, date of implant and three procedures for flushing/cleaning depending on the use of it. It can only be accessed with non-coring needles.

So, at this point, I'm ready to begin chemotherapy in on July 15th and I'll update this as I go along or have my wife write some of the updates.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like what heart patients go through, atleast those with ICDs (implanted cardiac devices). Some would be Pacemakers and/or Defibrillators! Only those devices are permanent, and the leads go right into the HEART!