To Port or not to Port

After  being  on blood thinners for eighteen years prior to my cancer diagnosis due to another  medical condition, my veins were buggered. The blood thinners required frequent blood tests to check my clotting levels. A port was suggested because of this and I was very  happy to have it put in. The idea of the port being easier  for the nurses as opposed to putting in an IV line is a bit  simplistic, in my view. In a person with regular veins, that would involve them swabbing  your arm, poking in the  cannula and connecting you up. The proceedure, time wise and fiddle wise is actually more for a port. They bring in a trolley, have to wipe it down, glove, mask and gown up as for a sterile procedure, which it is, open up a sterile dressing port pack, the start. Your skin over and around the port are  swabbed three  or four times, then the  clip and attachment are pushed through the skin surface into the chamber of the port. The  port is then flushed and a sterile dressing applied. Then the infusion is put up. At the end, the  same proceedure  happens in reverse, including a heparin solution injected into the line to keep blood clots from forming before your next infusion. Doesn't look like an easier procedure for them to me. It actually  takes them much longer all told than whacking in and then whipping out a simple cannula. Most importantly....it is easier for the patient. The slight prick and pushing, for me, was less nervewracking than having a finger  prick to check glucose  levels.