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The Freedom of my Port

At the end of August I had a Bard Power Port implanted in my chest. After 8 months of weekly schedule infusions and about a year of have almost weekly IVs scheduled or not my veins were becoming less and less usable. I was exhausted too. I was exhausted from my weekly trips to the infusion center, in addition to my normal medical appointments. I was exhausted from still crashing only a few days later from POTS. And I was exhausted from the ER trips that happened when I crashed particularly hard. My cardio did not want me to have a central line but when I came to my appointment mid-August the PA saw my arms that were so beaten up from the failed IV attempts and blown veins coupled with exhaustion from my most recent ER trip and a port was ordered.

The port surgery was at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), since that is where my cardio is. Unlike CHOP they were not as familiar with POTS patients (ironic since that is where I am treated for POTS), so they did not give me nearly enough fluids but besides for that it wasn't a hard surgery. Someone had told me it took them 3 weeks to get back to normal activities which freaked me our since I had plan to go to classes 3 days later since I was having surgery the first Friday of the semester. I knew that I would probably be fine and the doctor placing the port said to me after reading through me medical record this was no big deal compared to a lot of things I had been through. And he was right, not only was I fine to go to classes but I even went to a staff event for my job a couple days later.
When your surgical glue matches your shirt you know your outfit is on fleek

The port has been amazing. I am now getting fluids 3x a week. Every Monday a nurse comes and access the port, then I run the fluids myself and on Fridays I take the needle out. I can also do extra infusions as needed, which has saved me quite a few ER trips. I even can do them on the go. I have done infusions while in class and took all my supplied on trips with me. I really feel like I have gained a lot of freedom and control of my life with my port.

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