Port Placement

Zoë is at home and doing well after her port placement today. Her port will greatly reduce the amount of “pokies” she has to endure. She will still have to be “poked” when accessing her port but the nurses will not have to worry about finding a good vein to draw blood or insert an IV. We will also be given a numbing cream to apply to the area around her port so that the “pokie” will not hurt her as bad.

Zoë has two small incisions where they have placed her port. One is about an inch long and the other is very small. Both have dissolvable sutures and medical glue to help the wounds heal with the least amount of scarring. She has a dressing covering both that will be left on for three days. She may be sore at the point of the port insertion but that discomfort should only last for a maximum of two to three weeks. She has not complained of anything hurting as of yet.

Zoë was very apprehensive about her procedure today but we were able to make it through. She was given Versed to calm her before they even attempted the IV (thank you Memaw for the suggestion). Although it only seemed to help calm her fears slightly, I was relieved when she told me later that she did not even remember getting that “pokie” from the nurse with the blue hair. Everything with the surgery went splendid. The port was tested while she was asleep and worked as it should. As soon as they were finished, we were called back to be with her in the recovery room when she woke up from the anesthesia. Her throat was a little sore after having the breathing tube during surgery but she was able to take a few small sips of apple juice. Once the nurse made sure she was able to keep the juice down we were allowed to be discharged and head home. She slept most of the way home but as soon as she woke up she was hungry. She, of course, was asking if we could go to McDonalds.