Port is in, test drive tomorrow

That is where my port is located above my right breast, mine is actually a little lower than that one. It is all under the skin and they just use a needle to access the port in order to adminster chemotherapy.

That is a picture of the use of a port, although I have a different brand so mine is not purple but you get the idea.

The surgery was done under full anesthetic and I woke up in a really bad way. It was worse waking up from a short port surgery than my lumpectomy, sentinel node biopsy and axillary dissection combined. I had such a bad reaction to the anesthetic it was awful. Even after two IV anti-nauseants and maxalon when I got home it took me 36 hours to be able to eat and drink. It was really awful. The pain was bad too, panadiene forte (Tylenol 3's) did absolutely nothing. I did take an endone (not realizing it reacts with panadiene forte) and will not make that mistake again. I was terrified I was going to overdose, but never did thank goodness. I will not repeat that error in desperation to escape pain again it freaked me out after I figured out 5 minutes later what I did and I couldn't spew it up. Lesson of the day: Don't mix morphine tablets with codeine!

The only side effect that really scared me was that for 3 days every time I walked around it was like my blood pressure would go up and I would get pain in my jugular vein all the way up to my jaw and I would get short of breath I assume from anxiety). I just had to really relax, which I can never do so I always ended up overdoing it and then being freaked out. I had my appointment and the oncologist said all was well and the pain and pressure went away. I am very curious if anyone else had this issue since I couldn't find it on google. Please comment if you had something similar.

Now 6 days later I feel pretty darn good. The pain is only a bit at the incision site, you can hardly see the port under my skin and all is well. I still think it was the best decision I have made, and I hope the trial run tomorrow is a lot more relaxing that getting stabbed a million times with an IV for them to never get it right and end up with 12 holes in my arm for only 2 successful cannula's like last time.  Apparently from most other cancer patients they all agree, the port is the way to go! We shall see tomorrow!