Port Site Not Healing

virginiann · June 3, 2007

Hi all, my post-op visit was last Thursday and I was told I could take off the steri-strips. So that night after my shower my husband started taking them off slowly and as he was pulling off one from my port area it started bleeding. Very thin blood, I figured because of the heparin shots I had to take. Not thinking anything of it we just bandaged it back up and forgot about it. Well this morning, we saw that the bandage was well stained. So this afternoon I began to take it off again and the dang thing is still not healing, this time it is bright red blood. I had to hold pressure on it so it would stop. My husband said this was getting crazy and to call the doc. I called the doctor on call and he called me back saying it could not be blood! He said it had to be a pocket of 'fluid'. I explained to him it was bright red blood and it was more than seeping. He instructed me to go to the pharmacy and get a 4x6 and hold it on there to stop it, then to bandage it up and not to take a shower tonight.

Well we have it bandaged up again, but I can see that it is squirting blood each time I move. I know I'm not going to bleed to death. But I am a bit concerned and a little more than ticked at my surgeon. My surgery was on Monday May 21st. This thing should not be bleeding this late in the game!

Any thoughts?

SElaine · June 3, 2007

OMG! Seriously? What doc did you speak to? You know the mistake I made with my steri-strips and I haven't seen a drop of blood. I would be concerned, too.

I have heard some people on this board say that taking the heparin will do that because you will bleed soooo easily. Hopefully, now that you've stopped the shots it will help. Does it look infected at all?

(Are you at work?)

marjon9 · June 3, 2007

My port took a long time to close up as well, like more than a couple weeks. I had draining that was pretty red. It never seemed exactly like blood because it was thinner. But it was pretty red and it kept coming for a while. I do think that this "can" be normal. My general thought on this is to trust the doctor. But only so far. If you have the feeling that the doctor is not hearing you and something is really going wrong, of course deal with it. Maybe go to the emergency room. But a fair amount of draining, and a long healing process, can be pretty normal for a lot of people at the port site.

Good luck getting it sorted out.

virginiann · June 4, 2007

Well I finally took a shower last night and took the top layer of bandage

off. The bleeding has stopped and I am going to just let the steri-strips fall off. My port area still hurts. Today marks three weeks since my surgery. Last night rolling over woke me up a couple of times. I hope this week goes better for me.

My first fill is the 28th and I'm going to need every minute of that to heal. Right now I can't imagine anyone touching that area, let alone stick a needle there!

I have experienced hunger, but I'm trying real hard to manage my eating and stick to a good diet.

Hope everyone has a good day!

LLSibley · June 9, 2007

My port site was really sore for a long time but the outside healed within 2 weeks. They told me to just let the stirle strips fall off on their own. I had trouble with the incision on the opposite side. I kept a stirle strip on it for about 4 weeks. It had gotten infected but I don't know why. My GP gave me an antibiotic for the infection and in about a week it cleared but sstill had an ugly scab for a long time.