Hi,
I just wanted to add one to pro-ports. They are absolutely fantastic things. I have had mine 6-7 years now (i forget exactly). It has saved me a lot of hassle. I need IV antibiotics every 3-4 months. My veins can hold a cannula for only 3 hours, even now after all this time! If you're already accessed they can take most blood tests from ports. Just make sure the first 15 mls of blood is thrown away and the rest can be used for testing. As Dolphin said, 5mls Heprin (or heplock) is an abolsute must on every single dose of treatment and at every 4-6 week flushing. It must also be clamped off under positive pressure, so when pushing in the Heplock at the end, clamp off as you're still pushing when you get to about a ml or half a ml left in the syringe. Also only trained people should be accesing your port, some people will say "oh I'm trained too access a hickman line or a Picc, it's nearly the same" or "I've seen one getting accessed before so know what I am doing" but they must be properly port trained to access a port. It must also be accessed totally aseptically. Also under no circumstances use a syringe under 10mls. I can't remember why but can find out, but it's bad for your port if you do.
Be prepared for if you have to go for any operations. If you are having any sort of sedative, obviously you won't be able to use the port yourself, but anyone else using your port should also be fully trained to even use port-a-caths. This is to make sure no mistakes are made. It could mean, if you can't get someone who can use your port, you may need to still have a cannula for sedative meds or general anaesthetic. It's a pain, but it's worth it to prolong the life of your port. A port can stay in situe for many many years, longest I have heard of is 14 years! Watch for people putting bags of medication on too fast. It should usually be a steady drip. I've had a couple of nurses do this, and I've known about it as it's made me ill. One thing about port-a-caths is it's a lot easier to push medication in, there isn't usually any positional issues like there is with cannulas or longlines, but if a nurse is on autopilot and forgets she's using a port, it can cause problems.
Other than that, I've had so few problems with my port. I dread the day it fails me as it's also become my friend. It's my little silver-rolo friend (that's what a port looks like lol, you don't see it from the outisde though and can hardley tell it's there when not accessed except for if you scar from the cut like i did) . I dread ever having to have a cannula for more than 3 hours becasue 2 weeks of constant cannula changes is not going to be fun. Before I got my port, I only ever could manage 9 days of IV's at a time and that was a push. Towards getting my port, I could only tolerate 2-3 days of cannulas. Infact even the cannula they put in for me to go down to theatre for my port failed me after putting in general and they had to put another cannula in while i was still asleep which failed by the time I woke up. They accessed my port while under and let me use it straight away. I couldn't praise ports more really.
Sorry I've gone on a bit. I hope when you do get a port, you love it as much as I love mine :)
Gem x