Ports is one of my best knowledge areas. Hahaha.
Okay, a port is a surgically implanted device used for IV access. The device is always there, but there's not always a needle in you. It's placed because they can make sure they put it in a MAJOR vein, so you always have a very good place to inject IV meds. It sounds scary, because it's fairly permanent (they stay as long as the device lasts... assuming there is no clot or infection, it can sometimes last as long as 10 years), but it's incredibly convenient.
This is a picture of where mine is placed (though usually they are up higher, on the collarbone):
<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a347/Emily65Roses/PortFrontView10-10-05.jpg">
This is a sideview of it:
<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a347/Emily65Roses/PortSideView10-10-05.jpg">
I know it looks painful. But it's not. I can ram that thing into almost anything, and it doesn't hurt a bit. It hurt when it was healing, but that's true of any incision.
This is what it looks like when I'm using it (that means I'm on IVs, and there's a needle in the device at almost all times:
<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a347/Emily65Roses/Accessedport12-15-06.jpg">
Having a needle in at all times also sounds scary, but it's anchored in the device, so it won't budge and accidentally puncture your lungs or anything nuts like that.
This is what the port itself actually looks like, as well as the type of needles that are used in it (they are right angle, or 90 degree needles, so that they can go into the port and still lie flat on your skin):
<img src="http://www.snwlk.nl/images/DSC00002.JPG">
Most of the port is made of surgical steel. That usually makes people ask "Well then how do the needles get into it?" The top of the port is a hard gel, allowing sharp objects (like needles) in... meanwhile keeping liquids (like blood) from getting out.
I had mine implanted when I was 18, so I've had it for almost 5 years now, and it has given me almost no trouble. It was painful healing from (more so than my other surgeries in my opinion, as my tissue was like "WHAT IS THIS FOREIGN CRAP?!?!"), but 100% worth it. I'd recommend a port to anyone who is having trouble with PICCs or who has so many that they're tired of getting poked all the time. The needles used for a port are incredibly thin. They are 20 or 22 gauge, while regular earrings are 18s, and needles get thinner as the numbers get higher. So in other words, a port needle is a size or two THINNER than regular lobe earrings.
<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Feel free to ask me anything ever, but especially port stuff. It's, as I said, one of my best areas. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
