How A Port Works

One of the things people seem to be curious about is what the scar is on Dre's chest. When she or I tell them it's a port, folks want to know how it works. The illustration to the left gives a good general idea and more info can be found here. Dre's scar isn't that long, maybe 3 inches with a little half-inch scar above it. You can't see the port but you can feel it under her skin which is how the nurses know where to stick the needle. When Mom comes in for her five days of chemo, like this week, they access her
port on Monday and put the tubes in and then hook her up to the IV. Then they disconnect her from the IV but leave the tubes in so they don't have to poke her every day. On Friday the tubes come out. Mom says she can't even feel it when they poke the needle in because they disinfect, give her a numbing shot and "freeze" the site before getting started. Below is a video of Nurse Hope, just back from a nursing visit to Africa, doing the port dance with Mom this past Monday.