To port or PICC???

Member

14 years ago

Hi Celeste

My understanding of Her2positive ABC is that Herceptin is pretty much a forever drug. I know of women on a US site that I visit that are now off Herceptin but these are women who have been fortunate enough to be disease free for many years - at least 6-7. The others off Herceptin are off it due to heart issues.

I can personally highly recomend the port - I found the procedure very easy and non-invasive. I see others at chemo having a lot of trouble with their PICC's - allergies to tapes especially but also having it strapped to your arm all of the time and needing to keep it dry. No one can tell I have a port and I don't even notice it. I have a powerport so I can receive contrast in mine and I have most of my bloods done that way too, you can also have blood transfusions through them. With the port the access is via a "gripper" - I feel no pain at all with this - it is just a needle inserted into the skin where there port opening is - they then flush and get a blood return to see it is working well. After the chemo and herceptin are delivered, they flush and then heparin lock it (so it doesn't clot). Then they pull it out - again no pain and no blood (for me anyway). They can get infections in them - I haven't had one but have had neutropenia and they do need to rule out it as a source of infection when that happens (I imagine that would be the same with a PICC). I believe if you are not having the port accessed you need to get it flushed and hep locked every 3 weeks - no bother while you are on chemo or herceptin 3 weekly as it is flushed and hep locked then.

I'll try to add a picture of mine - Photo 25 copy.jpg