Thank you...the jury is in!
Hello ladies, thank you so much for taking the time to post and give me your experiences and thoughts around Port vs PICC.
It seems that the Port wins unanimously!
I feel so much better having received your comments, and I now feel confident that the Port is the way to go for me. A nurse at the hospital was quite keen on the PICC line, probably because it is less complex to 'install' etc, however if I'm going to be receiving regular treatment long term, then I need to feel as comfortable as I can with my veins being accessed.
Nowadays, because of my collapsing veins, I'm a big chicken with needles. When I enquired about getting a line put in, a nurse at the hospital told me that a fairly large, thick (scary-looking) needle is used to access the chest Port each time and that really frightened me! I had visions of even more pain! She also showed me how the Port would look under the skin when inserted, and it was quite unsightly....it was very noticeable and reminded me of a full-size bottle-top (close to an inch) sticking out just under the surface of the skin. I'm not a vain person at all, but this was very off-putting...it looked so strange. Those sorts of comments made me lean towards the PICC line initially.
No-one on this site has mentioned an unusually big, scary, fat needle which is great and some have mentioned numbing patches which sound like a fantastic idea. No-one has talked about the unsightly look of the Port either....perhaps this particular nurse I saw was just a fan of the PICC, and was more keen to promote that?
Anyway, I am now happy to go ahead with the Port to make this crappy situation just a little less crappy! :-)
It appears that the Port can be inserted in the chest or arm (?), but I think the chest would be better for me...less chance of knocking it etc.
I go tomorrow for me pre-anaesthetic assessment, and then the Port is inserted on Thursday,17th November, under twilight anaesthetic ( I assume this means I am not fully asleep?). This will all be done in time for my next chemo treatment on 24th November which is a relief!
My understaning is that I don't have to do any maintenance on the Port myself...the hospital can do that, which i think is also a relief at this stressful time.
So thank you once again ladies for taking the time to respond...you've all provided me with invaluable information that has helped me to make a confident decision and alleviated the anxiety I've been having around this.
So now to step 2...having the Port inserted to make life just that little bit easier...
Big hugs, Celeste xx??
