Fight Like A Girl: Port from ****

Remember how I said I didn't feel good but couldn't put my finger on it? Well, we discovered what it was. Around 7:00 Sunday evening I was in our driveway when our neighbors stopped to check on me. They could tell I was not feeling well. I wasn't able to stand up straight, walking very slow, and my neck was very sore where the catheter "was". I was down in the dumps and had said some pretty awful things shortly after out of frustration.

Around midnight on Sunday, I woke up with my neck on fire. It hurt worse than when I woke up in the ER after having the port and catheter put in. I was in tears and went to the bathroom to look at it in the mirror. I had the reddest line from my port up my neck tracing the path of the catheter. All I could do was sob. Jeremiah wanted to take me to the ER, but I wouldn't let him. I knew I had my standing appointment with the oncologist the next day (Monday) for my iv fluids. I decided to just show up there when they first opened.

At 8:30 am on Monday morning, I walked into their office in tears. I told whoever was at the front desk that I was in so much pain, and could I please see one of the doctors. Patty, one of the nurses, immediately knew something bad was happening with my port. She took me to a room and had the doctor who was in the office come in and check my neck. They knew I had a bad infection, but what kind...they didn't know.

I was sent to the infusion room and hooked up to an iv bag of vancomycin while they called Dr. Johnson (my breast surgeon who put my port in). They needed to get the port out pronto. Luckily, Dr. Johnson was at the local Northside Hospital near our house, and they scheduled me for surgery at 2:00 pm to remove it.