Okay--has anyone ever had their chemo drip into their arm? Because my father only had 3 chemos they opted not to give him a port/line.
So NOW-he has a large reddened and hardened spot on his arm-it looks like the spot is enlarging.

Suggestions?
P.S.-3 chemos complete-FINITO! Tonight at home watching our old Randy Moss score for the Raiders-He's feelin' real good. 3 more radiations.

I had 4 or 5 rounds of Carbo/Taxol last year and they were done with an IV line. They were 5 hours treatments every 3 weeks and I had no problems. I also am on my second weekly 5FU treatment which is administered as an injection through the IV. Again, no problems. I went back in your posts and could not find what your dad was getting, but I think it was Cisplatin. I think it may cause platelet issues and that may cause some bruising. Or they may not have gotten a good line into the vein. In any event, I would just give the Oncologist's office a call and see what they say.

Cisplatin via IV here also. I just had my second of a scheduled 7 or 8 infusions on Wednesday and both have been in my arm. Thus far my nurse has had no problem getting into a vein. Then again, she says they are as big as sewer lines. She is drawing blood for the tests from my right arm and infusing into the left.

Barry gets his carboplatin via IV in the arm or back of hand and he's getting 7 treatments (5 down). Takes about 45 minutes.

So far no issues with irritation but they do check every time and also, ask him if he's had any skin reaction at the site(s).

Gail

Hi Shawna, Steve here. I received all my chemo in my arm. Twice for four straight days and also weekly. I had no ill effects ecept for one vein blow up which went down afew hours after they switched the IV. Ask the nurse about the hard spot. Hopefully, it is not an infection. I doubt if it's anything serious.

Steve

Chemo extravasation-they poked through his vein and the chemo dripped into his interstitial space. (The tissue under his skin).
This has not happened to too many people. Everyone has said that they aren't worried. I told him at least he won't have a tumor in that spot of his arm ever...

My chemo of Cisplatin for 8 weeks was done once a week via the arm. This is very hard for me to admit here, but the chemo oncology nurses were probably the most adept and ironically compassionate of all the medical team. Goodness knows I don't want to go back though.

I've had my share of blown veins though, mostly through blood draws. There's nothing worse than dealing with a huge bruised up mess on the arm when you are already feeling low. Mentally, I try to take note on which person on the staff I've had satisfactory needle sticks with and cross my fingers that these are the folks who give them to me in the future. I also try to avoid the ones that are uncertain, clumsy and painful.

Not that I'm an expert, but when they set up my chemo, they generally try to make sure constantly that the IV drip is set up properly and there's nothing wrong with the injection site before they proceeded with the actual drips. It seems that they took many percautions to make sure it was in a vein and the drip was unhindered. They constantly came in to check on me to feel the arm and check the machine.

Jen