One of the recommendations from friends when starting chemo was to get a chemo port. However, in talking with our doctor, he said that I had good veins, and we didn’t have to go that route. In hindsight, I wish he would have pushed a lot more on the port as everything I hear about it is how amazing it is.

What’s a chemo port you ask?

“A chemo port is a small, implantable reservoir with a thin silicone tube that attaches to a vein. The main advantage of this vein-access device is that chemotherapy medications can be delivered directly into the port rather than a vein, eliminating the need for needle sticks.”

moffitt.org

The main reason I’m getting a port is that my arm hurts after chemo, like a lot. I feel like I’m destroying my left arm every time I get chemo and when it’s still bruised and hurts randomly after two weeks, I’m not very excited to continue down this route. So port it is.

Everyone I talk to tells me how great the port is and how it’s the right decision. Even the nurses when drawing blood, or the ones that call me about my mental/financial health, are so excited I’m getting a port. Supposedly, it just makes things so much easier.

I wish, for more than one reason, that I would have done this at the beginning, but we can’t go back in time, only forward, and I look forward to something being a little bit easier.