Portacath Removed - December 13, 2010

I was just about ready to leave on Saturday when Pete texted me that his father was coming up to visit him. I asked if I could send his clothes and other requested items up and possibly delay my visit until late so he checked with his father and a short time later he, his wife and their 2 children (older teens) pulled into my driveway to pick up Pete's things.

I decided to just wait for a while and possibly go up later in the evening, but it turned out that they didn't leave until after dinner time. Pete had company all day so I just decided I'd wait until tomorrow (Monday) to visit and perhaps things would have been resolved and I'd be able to bring him home.

Wrong. He's still receiving IV antibiotics and some heavy duty pain meds.

Late Sunday evening I got a text from Pete that the pain in his back had worsened considerably, so much so that he couldn't get out of bed to use the bathroom. He was offered some pain meds (Percocet, Oxycondone) but having had this type of pain in the past he knew that they were of little help. He requested toradol because it was one of the few pain relievers that had helped him in the past. A short time later the nurse hooked up an IV bolus of toradol and he had a second dose this morning. It did alleviate much of the pain, enough so that he was able to get out of bed and move around a bit.

When I heard from him this morning he said that the back  pain was a bit more tolerable and that he had been visited by several doctors, including pain management and infectious disease specialists. No one had been able to get a blood return from his port since he had arrived and they were unable to identify the source of the infection. His fever had spiked again several times this morning and he was told that under the circumstances it would be several days before he could be discharged.

Before driving up today I had spoken on the phone with him and discussed the very distinct possibility that the back pain might not be from his herniated discs, but rather the result of pressure from a yet unidentified new met to that area. He agreed to pursue this with the doctors and see if they could schedule a scan to identify the actual source of the pain.

I arrived around 1 PM. A short time later Dr R and A arrived to check on Pete. Dr R was adamant that the port was to be removed today since it was, in his opinion, the source of the infection. He also agreed that Pete should have a scan of the lower back as soon as possible. After talking with us for a while, they left, but about 15 minutes later they returned along with one of the resident doctors. Dr R explained to her exactly what he expected to be done and that it was to be done as soon as possible; remove the port and do a scan of the lower back.

I have to say that both Pete and I felt that Dr R was right on top of things and really looking out for Pete's best interests. Dr R said several times in the course of our conversations that he wanted Pete to be out of the hospital and home, something that Pete and I both also want, probably even more. My visit was under 2 hours, so I was home before the rush hour traffic really set in.

Pete called this evening. He had been taken down for the CT scan at 5 but they had trouble accessing his veins (contrast CT) and his IV antibiotics had begun to leak. Before they were able to completely address these problems, he was called in for the surgical removal of his port. They rescheduled the CT scan for after the port removal.

He called me to tell me that the removal of the port had been completed and he was back to waiting for the scan. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the CT scan shows only herniated discs and not another tumor.

Whatever the outcome, I'll be heading up there again tomorrow, hopefully to bring Pete home.