Cancer Treatment Options Forum - July 3rd, 2011 - 3 Comments
Does anyone know anything about chemo where they put a small tube in your chest if you are fighting cancer?
Has anyone here ever had this kind of chemo done to them where they put in a small tube in your chest if you are havng chemo and fighting cancer? What was it like? Did they knock you out to do it? How do it work?How do the doctor’ s do chemo this way?
Medical professional, doctors,nurse and medical personnel only please anser this quesion. Thank You
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When my sister was 15, she was diagnosed with cancer. They gave her a broviac catheter in her chest. Yes, they put her to sleep before surgically attaching it. By using a broviac, my sister did not have to get poked with needles all of the time. It saved her a lot of pain in the end. She was unable to take a shower while it was on, though, she could only take a bath.
FYI, she’s fine and fully recovered…she’ll be 24 this year!
Are you talking about a central line? It could be called a Port a Cath, or a PICC line, or a Hickman.
If this is what it is, what it means is that instead of using a regular iv where the tube just goes into the vein by a couple inches, they are going to a much larger vein, and the tube will travel from where it enters the vein to the tip of your heart.
This is done for a couple reasons. First some of the meds given will damage the veins. The tube running all the way to the heart protects the vein walls. The meds get mixed into the blood and diluted significantly at the heart, reducing significantly the risk to the veins.
Its also done because it is more reliable than a regular iv. While it can slip out or inflitrate, chances are very small. Also, it means that you wont have to be constantly stuck with new ivs or to draw blood work. There will be some instances where you will have to still be stuck for blood work, like for cultures, but this will cut down on that a lot.
And it is also done because they can run multiple meds at once, at a high rate than a reg iv.
If it is a port a cath, you will have needles that access it, but getting stuck with those needles doesnt really hurt. To me it feels like a beesting for a second or two. It will be covered by a dressing while it is accessed because the access point needs to remain sterile since it is a direct line to your blood. If it is a picc or hickman, you will have lumens on the outside of your body which will need to be covered by a dressing the entire time you have it
In most cases when they place the line, they will give you versed and fentanol. They will numb you with lidocain at the entry site. You will not be out of it, but you wont be in pain either. It will be inserted likely by radiology or surgery. They use the flouroscopes so they can see exactly what they are doing, and it is technically a surgical proceedure so everything has to be sterile. It will hurt for a few days after, but all pain should be gone after a week.
My tube was put in my arm but some are put in your chest. When they put mine in they had an x-ray machine that found the vein that went to my heart, then deadened it and inserted the tube. I laid there and watched as they put it in. I did not have any pain other than a few stings as they deadened the site where the tube was inserted. Other than that I did not feel a thing. Then the chemo was hooked to one of the tubes( the pic line I had had 2 lines going into 1) and they could take blood out of the other line. It doesn’t really hurt. It don’t even hurt too bad when they took it out.