Port Infection Torture

The trial was going as expected, a lot of visits, a lot of blood draws and some side effects here and there.  On the more serious side, I was getting high fevers and chills that lasted a couple days every time that the port was accessed for the past month.  This past Thursday they drew cultures off of the port and off of a peripheral vein in my arm (the IV nurse was lucky enough to find one, it would have been great if it didn’t collapse after one usage).  Friday morning I received a call saying that the cultures came back positive for an infection and that I needed to go to the ER immediately and that I would be admitted for at least the weekend to receive IV antibiotics.

 Nothing is ever as easy as they make it sound, as annoyed as I was with the haste and the diagnosis, the reality of the situation is even more frustrating.  I was processed in the ER right away and was put in a room, but once there things got a bit more serious, it was at this time that I found out that several people from a few various departments felt that my port should just be taken out; I assured them that taking out the port would be the very last result, only when we are completely out of options.  I had the ER nurse call and speak with my former oncology nurse who assured her how vital the port is to me being able to receive treatment, and also had her call the port specialist who helped set up the surgery for my port back in 2010.  The port specialist came to the ER to see the port and access it for blood work.  The plan was to administer the antibiotic through an IV in my arm, and after searching for a vein and failing three times, leaving pretty large bruises on my arms, they finally agreed with me that it should be given through the port.  I remained in the ER until 8p because my fevers kept spiking, my chills were so bad that my whole body was shaking, and my heart rate had increased too high to move me.

Once things settled down and I was moved into a room things didn’t get much easier.  I have seen at least a dozen doctors, fellows, and nurses whom I have never met before who continue to tell me that the teams are still considering taking the port out and that they are still trying to figure out which antibiotic to keep me on, at this point I have had a dose of 5 different antibiotics.    My fevers continued to spike until yesterday evening (Saturday) and the cultures from Thursday and Friday came back positive for an infection.  At 7p last night they finally chose an antibiotic to stick with and that they were going to send me for an ultra sound of the port to look for fluid or bacteria pockets around the port, and that today I would go for an echocardiogram because one of the doctors heard a murmur in my heart and they want to make sure that there is not a buildup of bacteria on one of the valves.  In addition to giving me the antibiotic every four hours, instead of flushing the port after usage a combination of an antibiotic and heparin will be pushed into the port and left in the lines until the next antibiotic dose.

At this point we are waiting for the results of the ultra sound, echocardiogram, daily blood cultures and to make sure that I do not have any more fevers.  Once all of this information is gathered and reviewed by the teams of doctors, hopefully a plan can be made.  The latest estimate of my release is said to be either Monday or Tuesday, but as with everything else, nobody knows for sure.