Freaking Out A Bit

I think I have mentioned in the past that I have had occasional pain at my port site, near or around the incision. My surgeon has put me on antibiotics on two occasions, to address the issue, which usually manifests itself with an ugly bruise and some swelling at the incision. All my other incisions healed so nicely, and have pretty much disappeared, but this damn port site has given me nothing but trouble. Sometimes it is worse than others, but it has never been unbearable--only painful to pressure or when I stretch it, usually exercising or...well, you know (wink, wink). Well, it had actually been doing well for the past month or so, and the scar seemed to be disappearing a bit. Until I got a fill just over a week ago. I am always tender there after a fill, for whatever reason, and this time was no exception. Except, in the days following, the incision area began to bruise & fill with blood, seemingly worse than ever. Again, tenderness, but not awful. Well, this morning I was in Aqua Aerobics, and the sprints were causing me pain, so much so that I had to hold the port area to offer support. I called the surgeon's office to get me in, and they had availability at 1:15. I was not overly concerned, but wanted him to check it out. Well, his reaction totally freaked me out. It went something like...."Let's have a look. OH MY GOD, that is NOT GOOD. This is very serious, Jennifer! This is so very different that when I saw you last week. We need to schedule you for an Endoscopy immediately to ensure the band hasn't eroded". He whipped out his cell phone right there and called a Gastroenterologist colleague, and asked him to consult with me today and squeeze me in first thing tomorrow for the procedure. Dr. B. said I don't have other symptoms of an erosion, but that we need to rule that out and do so quickly. And of course when I got home, I got online and can't find a lot of other reasons for the port infection other than erosion, so now I'm totally freaked. If the band is eroded, it will need to be removed immediately. Want to see a picture of the swollen nastiness? If not, close this entry now. And please wish me luck for tomorrow!