9/26/19: I Got My Port Checked - It's Fine

I woke up early this morning. My port still hurt a lot. I noticed redness around the port location, and it felt hot to the touch. The discharge papers I received yesterday said to call if "pain or redness are getting worse instead of better" and if "the area around your port feels warm or hot to the touch."

I was hesitant to call because you don't want to be "that patient" who overreacts and wants to be seen for every minor symptom. But I figured better safe than sorry.

I got an answering service, and the doctor on call called me back. She said if I have a fever or chills, or if the red area is spreading rapidly, I should go to the ER. None of those being true, she said I should call the Cancer Center when it opened at 8:00 and try to get an appointment to be seen.

I actually had my echocardiogram scheduled for 9:00, and to make it in time during rush hour, I'd have to be on the road by 8:00. The doctor said I could just show up, that's fine.

I took another dose of Tylenol and headed over to the Cancer Center. The seat belt would have been painful on my port, but I used my soft squishy dragon pillow on my belly, keeping the seat belt off the port area entirely. I arrived just after 8:00 and spoke with the front desk in person.

The nurse who works most often with ports couldn't see me before 9:00, but she said I should come back after my echocardiogram appointment, and she'd fit me in.

She saw me almost right away after I returned from the echo. She was super nice, saying she always prefers that a patient call if they have any concerns, and it's not a problem that I didn't have an appointment.

She took off the dressing and saw that the redness doesn't actually start at the incision; it's the area below the port. She thinks the redness is a bruise, with blood draining downward. She said the port placement surgery is actually pretty rough; the doctor basically needs to push things around to make room for the port under my skin! And I got a little extra pushing and pulling, so a bruise makes sense.

She used a skin marker to outline the edge of the redness, so we can easily see if it gets any bigger. She thinks over the next few days, it'll turn colors to look more like a bruise.