Hi Ladies, ive just had an appointment through to have an insertion of a central line next week, im sure he said yesterday it will go in my arm and now im shaking, does everyone have this who is having chemo? im worried about it and dont know what to expect during the procedure
Hi @eeyore58 - you have entered the world of so many new terms and words, and I think our doctors sometimes forget that we don’t know what all of them mean. I too would have been shaking if someone had thrown that idea at me without explanation. So it’s great that you are reaching out on here for advice and someone to translate.
I’ll try to explain what I know and my experience and hope that helps. Sorry I’m not medical so apologies if I’m a bit vague! When I had my first chemo it was injected via a cannula in my hand. Unfortunately my veins didn’t react well to the chemo so they suggested I have a port (full name I think is a portcath if you want to google, but only stay on reputable sites) inserted in my chest. This enabled the chemo tube/drugs to be inserted straight into this port and into my veins, without having to fight its way through my hand and up my arm. There is also another similar thing called a picc line, but that is inserted into your upper arm and operates much the same way I believe. This might be what your doctor is talking about - but I would have expected him/her to discuss something like this at your appointment, rather than springing it on you. Or I might be completely mistaken, and there might be another possibility.
Some people manage to go all the way through chemo using veins in their hands/elbow area, but many do have these other gadgets inserted to help. Mine was inserted using a local anaesthetic, and a huge amount of sedative so I had no idea what was going on, and I was in and out of hospital in a few hours. I believe some people have general anaesthetic. It was a bit uncomfortable to start with but did ease and did make chemo and taking bloods easier.
I would suggest you call your assigned breast care nurse at the hospital and find out some more details and why they are doing this procedure. It’s your body and you have every right to ask questions - if you want to of course.
Please feel free to ask me any more questions if you think I can help at all. Evie xx