Adventures in Port Access

Once a week, Mom's port needs to be "deaccessed" and then "reaccessed." The magic day happens to be Thursday, and so this past Thursday I ambitiously decided to offer Mom a bath while she was not connected to anything. What this ultimately turned in to was me getting in the tub with her while still in my pajamas, because let me tell you, it is a LONG way down when you're working with someone who has limited lower body strength. At any rate, it was well worth the effort, because every time Gwennie and I would check on Mom we'd get a "just five more minutes," for about 20 minutes. Total bath time: 40 minutes. Pairs of pajamas soaked: 3. Variety of bath products used: 3 (because obviously she needed bath salts, and continues to shampoo and condition her Sinead. Odd). Seeing Mom outlandishly happy and glowing: priceless.

Once Mom was out of the bath, it was time to reaccess her port and hang IV fluids. First, Gwennie starts by helping Mom choose an outfit from the selection of goodies I recently picked up. Daisy Fuentes for Kohls. Don't knock it till you try it people.

This is Mom's port. It's a small hub that sits right below the surface of the skin. She actually has a double port, and each port hub has a lumen that travels in to a major artery near the heart. The advantage to a double port is that she can get two things at once that may be incompatible with one another. For example, if she were to need two IV medications at the same time, she could get both, because they don't mix until they are in the blood stream.

While I'm washing my hands for at least 15 seconds, with lots of friction in water no less than 110 degrees, Gwennie and Mom get pumped up for port access.

Then I create my sterile field, so that when I've put on my sterile gloves, I can touch all my supplies without risk of contamination.

With clean hands, I scrub with three alcohol swabs, moving from inside to out, or clean to dirty.

Next, don sterile gloves. And if you are a nurse, you are very fond of this saying.

Time to access. Just by touching Mom's port, I can feel the center and where I need to access. Note to self: Mom hits roof when accessing left port. Keep clear.

Now we're accessed, and I flush with some normal saline and check for blood return by pulling back a bit on the syringe. This confirms that I am in the right spot.

Dress it on up with a transparent dressing...

TA-DA! Port accessed, dressed, and IV fluids are up.

But remember kids, always sign, date, and time your dressings.

Stay tuned for Adventures in Disconnecting IV Fluids, featuring Gwennie, my kid sister who's going to be a nurse but just doesn't know it yet.