The Day One Poke Turned Into Three

Day 1 of the port-o-cath adventure: Well, Thursday night it was that lovely time of the month again where my port needed its monthly injection of heparin to remain happy and drugged up.

As you can see it is ready to be drugged again!

Mom began the routine of setting up the sterile "force-field". After it was set up, I hopped up on the kitchen counter (the make-shift operating table) and laid down. I had great confidence in my mom and the fun began. 1,2,3 POKE! Try to pull back the plunger and no luck, zero blood. Mom began her usual cursing and wondering what to do. I said pull the damn thing out and try again (thinking she missed the target). She grabbed another needle and tried again and again no blood. More cursing followed. We then thought hell, what are we going to do? Mom thought she had missed twice, but it flushed like nobody's business, just no blood return. We decided I would come into the hospital tomorrow and one of her nurse friends would try a third time.

Day 2 of the port-o-cath adventure: I arrived at the hospital at around 10am (after I finally got the ice scraped off my window). And again I found myself laying on a hospital bed surrounded by a sterile force field. The nurse grabbed the needle and POKE! Still no blood return, but flushed easily. After that we learned that mom didn't actually miss, there must be something blocking the return of blood. (I think it was the port-o-cath rebelling because it hadn't received it's monthly drug yet).

We called the doc and I headed off to emergency to see if they could put some junk it the line to unblock it. After sitting there for about 2 hours, the goop was put in the line. I hung out for 2 hours and then the gunk was removed and the line was flushed. It was the moment of truth. Would there be blood return or not? I am happy to announce that there was blood return. The port monster received its drug and I am good to go for another month.

Here's to hoping it doesn't decide to block the blood return next month!