Paul,
I had to have my port removed early, but thankfully after chemo was done. I got a MRSA infection in it and let me tell you, it can be serious. Luckily, the skilled eyes of a nurse looked at my port site and did not like the looks of it. He said it looked "angry"...all red and puffy. They had to yank it out with minor surgery that day. Luckily, the MRSA had not spread to my blood and was localized to the tip of the catheter, but it's still a huge deal. I had to take heavy duty abx called vancomycin twice daily.

Every time a health care provider sees me, she/he has to don a gown and gloves. This goes on for months while they culture the inside of your nose to see if the infection is gone. One of my very best friends just had a baby after 7 years of infertility failures and I cannot got meet her due to the MRSA (she's also a premie).

In other words, you don't want to get MRSA, so IMO get the port pulled as soon as you don't need it anymore. It is a great way for a major infection to start.

Always looking out for my OCF friends,
Kerri