Mar 1 2015

Portacath

Rosemary

On Thursday, they took out my portacath.

I was awake in the  OR, sort of sedated (although, not by very much), with the general area just locally numbed.   At some point, the doctor said, “Do you want to take it home in a jar?”

I had not known this was an option!  “Yes, I would!” I said definitely.  I think my enthusiasm took took him aback.

But, yep, I now possess, outside my body, a thing that resided inside my body for 15 months.   This object did a stellar job for all that time, sparing my arm-veins from the repetitive damage of regular (sometimes weekly) chemo infusions.    Implanted under my skin, with a catheter leading to my left subclavian vein, it has a self-sealing silicone dome that allowed the nurse access with just a little needle prick through my skin and into the dome area.   They could draw my blood for testing, and pour in those mighty chemicals –  no muss, no fuss.

It made my life a whole lot easier.   Great invention.

 Here’s Wikipedia’s description.

I figure, I’ll get one of those old-fashioned bottles, like the ones they used to use in natural history collections, stick it in, seal it with sealing wax — voila!    Artifact from my chemo days.

All in the past now.