Does anyone have a port?

Ive had itp for 11 years and have had my port for 3 years. I have my port because my veins are horrible and for three years I was never given heparin to flush it just regular saline. Now all of a sudden at my dr office it's a problem but with heparin being a blood thinner I was never allowed to have it. Anybody have any experience with this?

Keli:

I've only ever seen a handful of people have a port over the years. It's not very common.

Yeah I figured that was another red flag I had when the nurse said all the itp patients I've had their ports were flushed with heparin and I know they are not common in itp i just gave really bad veins it use to take 10-15 sticks each time I needed an Iv I just don't know if I should allow the heparin

That's weird what the nurse said. I have a technique I call the wide eyed question, in that case open your eyes wide and say something like 'that's interesting, how many itp patients do you have with ports?'

I wonder though, maybe she is thinking of patients who have itp as secondary to chemo treatments. Ports are a lot more common for chemo, and itp can be a side effect.
Erica

Yeah but low counts in chemo patients are even more dangerous than low counts for ITP, so how would they use heparin then? Maybe it's just a minimal amount....don't know.

I've never questioned that. My Mom had chemo for 6 months, but no port. I do know a woman who has a port (pharmacist's sister). I could ask her, but maybe she never had low platelets.

I've seen ports twice in my family. My mother recently got one ahead of chemo she's now undergoing. She has horrible veins, loathes having a venipuncture for blood draws, and is having no trouble with her port.

As Sandi said, thrombocytopenia in a chemo patient is very different. Before she started chemo, they took my mother off all NSAIDs, had her take all fatty fish or fish oils out of her diet, stop drinking alcohol entirely, etc. No heparin flush or anything like that so far either.

As I understand it from my mother, chemo patients can develop thrombocytopenia, but it's usually not ITP. Instead, it's one of the many hematologic anomalies that can happen during/after chemo.

Exactly. When my Mom had chemo, her platelets were low. Sometimes she had to skip the treatment until her counts came up. When she was done with chemo, her counts went back to normal.