Port-a-Cath

Adam's second session of Chemo started today. This is a four hour process the first day, as several different drugs are put into his body intravenously. Prior to today he had what was called a PICC for this process. A PICC is a catheter implanted into the vein of the arm and into the Superior Vena Cava, which is...well here is a picture:

This morning however, a new catheter was implanted. This one is called a Port-a-Cath. It is a port that is placed just under the skin that has a catheter feed through the superior vena cava directly. This port is closed when not in use, and then is opened or "accessed" when in use. It is much more convenient to the patient. If having a plastic tube running from your chest into you heart cavity which allows chemicals to be pushed through your body is convenient. But this is what is making our son better, so whatever it takes, and however it can be more convenient, both he and his mother and I are all for it.

The actual procedure only takes about 30-40 minutes, but he was put under anesthesia, so we needed to wait for him to "recover" before he was taken back to his room.

The chemo was just started a few minutes ago, so this will be a long night, but Adam is sleeping, which is good.