Florida Vacation, Infected Ports

Hello from sunny, hot, and humid Florida!

Siesta Key Sunset

That's right, Holly and I went on a quick vacation over the July 4th weekend to Siesta Key (just south of Tampa).  The beach was beautiful and the weather was nice, but nothing is really going to feel the same until the darn coronavirus thing is over.  With bars closed and us not daring to eat inside at any restaurants, pretty much the best we could do was takeout . . . and the occasional patio breakfast.  We did our best though to social distance and wear masks when appropriate.  Given that coronavirus cases were/are spiraling out of control there in FL, I'm just happy to have gotten back home safely and, two weeks later, still be virus free!

To be clear, we might be virus free, but apparently not infection free.  It turns out that my chemotherapy port (surgically implanted in my right chest) appears to be brewing an infection.  I noticed several days ago that something was wrong because the skin was reddish in color and very sensitive above the port. 

My oncologist (Dr. Ummed) took a look at this last Thursday and confirmed that this was the early stages of a port infection.  He also pointed out that he has seen a number of port infections specifically with those getting Yondelis.  In fact, he added, I've gone longer (1.5 years) than most of his Yondelis patients with avoiding a port infection.  He then sent me to the infusion room for IV antibiotics and home with a prescription of oral antibiotics. 

As I write this post (three days later), I'm unfortunately not seeing any improvement.  In fact, it seems to have gotten slightly worse.  So I'll definitely be following up with Dr. Ummed tomorrow.

Barring some sort of miracle, I think that ultimately the port is going to have to be removed and replaced with a new port, this time in my left chest.  Normally I wouldn't be all that concerned about this sort of thing, especially since it is "common" with Yondelis patients.  But given this coronavirus thing that's going on, I really would prefer avoiding the hospital and surgery at this particular point in time.  Oh well, it's out of my control, and I'll just have to do whatever I have to do to rid the infection and stay on a chemotherapy treatment schedule.

Oh and one more fun fact worth mentioning: it is not possible to Yondelis administered by direct IV; you must have a port!  Why?  Because apparently Yondelis is very dangerous if it enters your body outside of the bloodstream.  The port guarantees that the Yondelis goes straight to the bloodstream whereas the needle with an IV could possible move outside of your vein during the 24-hour infusion process.  Think about it, you have to take your chemo backpack to bed with you at night.  Can you be sure you don't roll over strangely or do something to cause that needle to penetrate outside your vein and have Yondelis go directly into your body?  The port ensures that you don't have to take that risk . . . though it can get infected.  Always complications!

That's all for now.  I'll be sure to keep you posted with the outcome of this port issue.