A Central Line

There has been some chatter lately among my PIDD friends about central lines, the pros and cons, etc. A healthy friend saw some of it in the news feed, particularly an xray with a port shown, and sent me a Facebook PM.

"what's that thing in that girls chest? does she have what you have? will you have to get one of those sometime?"

I answered that it is a central line aka a port, and while I don't need one currently, the plan is not to give me one anytime in the forseeable future, but if I need chemo or something, I will probably have one installed. This is true, but it isn't the whole truth.

The whole truth is that I will very likely need one of these, or a picc line at the very least, at some point in my lifetime. A high number of chronically ill people do. With the odds of my getting some form of cancer being pretty good, a port is not far outside the realm of possibility. It scares me, so I don't like to talk about it or think about it. A port means critical illness to me, and I really don't want to have to go there.

Unfortunately, I have some friends who don't have a choice right now and that's really challenging me.