This is Paytan’s portacath… She is laying down with her being on the left of the picture.
It is located about 6″ below her armpit.
There is a connection beneath her skin..(you can see in the next picture) that was inserted during surgery. There is then a tubing that goes from the needle point through her main artery towards her neck and then down into her heart.
This method is used because the toxicity of the chemos would destroy her veins upon being put through with an I….V. The port delivers the chemo directly to her heart which within a few seconds has pumped blood & chemo mixed..”everything” through her body mixed together.
The part that is changed on a weekly basis is the yellow butterfly needle and tube. It’s a fairly big needle in thickness and length.
Paytan’s connection inside is a visible lump externally… Which deceiving … The angle has to be just right… And hers has to be “pushed” in further than everyone thinks! Today was 2 attempts to insert and get blood return…. Very traumatic! She only receives freezing spray now…. The patch takes too long to work and being in MDU there was no pre-done order for Adavan….
Rough start to the morning