I have a port and I love it. Well, as much as you can love a foreign object in your body. It's been a lot easier for me to handle (and get in) than the PICC I had a few years ago and, I've been off IV stuff since October so it's just there under the skin and only needs monthly flushing and I can shower and swim normally.

If you take good care of a central line or port, they are no more liable to get infeced than a PICC. And, since a port is completely under the skin and gets accessed with a needle, it can be less likely to get infected as long as everything is kept sterile when the needle is being put in.

Here's a post where I put up a lot of information about ports, including some good pictures.

And here's a post with some info about all the different kinds of IV lines.

I hope this helps you. And if you have any questions that those posts don't answer, I'm happy to answer them.

--Annie

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I've had two picc lines, one for seven months. During the second round of rocephin, I was also on flagyl, zith, plaquenil, and ceftin at the same time, and they didn't work beyond a certain point. The abx listed above showed immediate results.

I have a port, was put in Sept. '04 for Rocephin. Looks like Annie gave you tons of great info! I had soreness for 2 weeks, then some discomfort for the next 2 weeks until the pocket tightened up around the port so it wouldn't move around.

That huber needle can look vicious but I use a numbing cream, Emla, prescribed by the dr. I am one who hates needles! But this is easy as long as the nurse accessing you knows what they are doing. Since I expect to be on IV for a year or more, I do think the port is the way to go. It doesn't fall, it's a closed system so it's actually less likely to get infected as long as accessing and infusions are sterile. It does feel strange at first, but I am now amazingly used to it

FYI ... I have Lyme, Rocky Mountain, lots of co-infections and viruses. After taking Doxy for a long time I was switched to Ketek, along with tons of other meds. Doxy did clear up myco strep. If you do the port dig out all your button up shirts This makes it easy to open the top to do the IV.

I have a nurse daily, rather than doing infusions myself because I also have pulmonary AVMs, which means I can't get air bubbles ... ha, ha, cute trick if you can do it Without the complications of the AVMs, I think I could do the infusion with my eyes shut now

Best of Luck

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Originally posted by IBelieve:
My doctor wants to do a second round of IV rocephin. I had trouble with the mid-line last time, so this time he wants to place a port or central line. This scares me. Can't they become infected easily? Any replies will help.
Thank you

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