Port pain after pregnancy

Hi,

Has anyone had this problem?  I didn't have any pain during the pregnancy but since I had the baby, I've had a couple episodes where my port is just really bothering me. It seems to come on randomly and go away randomly.  I gave birth 7 weeks ago.

It starts to feel like the port is either digging into my ribs or into my hip bone.  It hurts when I laugh or put any kind of pressure on the area. I don't know if it's from carrying my baby girl around constantly or what.  

Can the port shift out of position after pregnancy?  Should it go back naturally once my abs get back in shape?  Its really irritating!

Any advice would be appreciated! :)

You need to ask your surgeon.  In my case I wasn't pregnant, I would have horrible pain when I lifted or exercised.  In my case, my port had tipped.  It had torn some of the stitching lose.  Than It encapsulated in scare tissue.  Only your surgeon could tell is it is loose or just pulled while you are getting back to your old self.  He told me in was minor surgery to move or re-stitch.  But, with the other medical issues the band cause we agreed the band needed to come out any way.

Good luck with your port.

Thanks for the response.  How did he determine it was tipped? Just by examination or did you have a have an x-ray or something?  

My surgery was over three years ago and I haven't seen my surgeon in probably 1-2 years.  I haven't had any issues until now.  But the last time I got a fill, (actually everytime) he told me that my port was pointing sideways but he didn't seem to think it needed to be fixed in any way . . . it just changed the way they accessed it for the fill.

If you didn't have the other medical issues, would you have opted to get it fixed or just live with it?  Was it hurting all the time or just sometimes?

Thanks again for the input!

They knew from trying to access the port that it was tipped. Every fill and un-fill I was told it hurt because it was tipped and I had scaring.  Now I know fills shouldn't hurt because the ones I got the first few months, I didn't even feel.  It wasn't until they did surgery that they found out that the body was trying to get rid of the port.  It had encapsulated in scare tissue with the port tipped inside.  The stitches had been torn out on two sides.

If I had nothing else wrong, I had found the "sweet" spot and had lost without issue, I would have opted for the fix.  Once in there they would have had to remove the band though when the found the body rejected the port.  The band issues were some of the same to a lesser extent.

Hopefully yours is just a minor issue.  It could be something as simple as a pulled muscle or needing to stitch the port back down.  Is anything else going on?  Good Luck with your port!

I started experiencing twinges around my port shortly after giving birth in 2009, and they flared into major pain in 2011. Upper GI and EGD showed my placement was fine. My surgeon suspected something about nerve endings in the scar tissue causing the discomfort. I ended up having to get the band removed, as I could not put up with the pain any longer.