How did I forget?!

I forgot something very important. On October 6th, my port turned 2 years old! Two years ago the port was surgically placed inside my chest.

My port is on the right side of my chest (opposite of my heart). You can actually see the tubing that goes from my port to my neck and then to my heart. You can see it right under the skin.

The port is attached and tied to the muscle in my chest. When not accessed, nothing is hanging out of the port. It's all under the skin which means that when it's not accessed I can shower like normal! No glad and seal like I had to do with my PICC line. I know you're glad that I shower. To access my port, you use a special 1 inch needle. My mom and I had to go through training to be able to access the port at home by ourselves. Obviously this is taken very seriously since we are putting a 1 inch needle in my chest, that connects to my heart and has to be completely sterile. This procedure is not taken lightly. Knowing how to access my port has allowed me to do IVs at home. It is also helpful when in the hospital or Nevada because my veins are terrible and have been used so much. 

There is one problem. Sometimes in the hospital the nurse will come in and say, "oh we can't access ports here. We aren't trained to do that". So they don't use it. Then they proceed to try to find my veins. Well it's so much fun to get stuck so usually I make my veins act stubborn. I like for them to stick me 3-8 times. Just kidding. But really?! The nurses in the ER can't access my port? "But my mom accesses it from home," I say. That doesn't matter apparently. So I get a normal IV in my arms. That is until they go through 2 nurses and a total of 5 sticks. I told you I like to cause trouble. Then it's like magic! Somehow, someone figured out how to access a port within the past 10 minutes! So then I get my port accessed and all is well.

My port has been through a lot! It's been to Nevada, Brazil, Florida, and many other places. Sometimes it gets accessed every day which I'm sure is traumatic to it! Bless its heart. 

It's a weird thought that a piece of metal is just hanging out in my chest and that we stab it with a needle and then immediately have IV access! I love my little port. I love showing it to people and see them freaking out because you can see it and the tube that runs to my neck. 

Here is a picture that I got off of google. This is what the port looks like!

It's weird that at some time the port will have to come out. I'll probably have separation anxiety or something. So happy 2nd birthday to my port! I hope we have many more years together.