Cheers to Portricia

It’s time to talk about someone (something) close to my heart. Literally. After 10 years, hundreds of punctures and many, many, many hospital admissions, my port-a-cath (Portricia) has passed away.

For those who don’t know, a Port is a little disc connected to a tube and inserted under the skin on the chest to provide instant and easy intravenous access. For someone having regular IVs (around 4-5 hospital admissions a year, for 2-3 weeks at a time), who also has terribly weak and small veins, a port was the perfect solution.

Before having it inserted, I was obviously nervous but as much as I didn’t want it, I knew I needed it. A friend with CF who I’d met during one of my many hospital stays reassured me that ports are great and really help, and I can say that it has been probably the best medical procedure I’ve ever had! Each hospital admission that followed was so much easier, as one single, pain-free access meant IV doses were able to be administered easily.

After 10 years, the scarring from the initial operation has completely healed, leaving only two small and subtle marks. I scrolled back months for this selfie – it is the only picture where you can actually see a scar! Now the port has been taken out and I have a fresh scar that I am hoping will also look this healed one day!

During every hospital admission (and once a month in between to keep it running) a needle would be inserted into the disc so it could be used. Sometimes a port’s life expectancy is measured in years and sometimes in punctures (needle accesses). I have no idea how many times a needle has been put into mine but I do know that I’ve had it for around 10 years which is pretty good going!

For the past 6 years, I haven’t been admitted so it hasn’t been used for IVs. For most of this time, it stayed working but around a year ago it stopped. At the time it was unclear why but when having it taken out it we could see that the tube had split and this was likely to be the reason it stopped. Scroll past quickly if you don’t want to see it after 10 years in the body… for those of you who are interested, this was 10-year-old Portricia.

So here’s to Portricia for the past 10 years – something I am so grateful for, something I had occasionally been afraid to tell people and talk about, something I didn’t know would help me so much and something I am more than happy to have the (very subtle) scars for.

 

// Beth