What Is a Port?

If you need medicine many times, all those pokes can get old fast. That's why lots of kids get a port. It's one of the best helpers at the hospital.

What it is

A port is a small, round button about the size of a quarter. It sits just under your skin, usually on your chest. A tiny soft tube connects it to a big vein inside. From the outside, it just looks like a small bump.

The port's whole job is simple: it gives medicine a front door. No more hunting for a vein in your arm every single time.

How it gets there

A doctor puts the port in during a short surgery. You get sleepy medicine first, so you're fast asleep and feel nothing. When you wake up, the port is in. The spot might feel sore for a few days, like a bruise. Then it settles down, and most kids forget it's even there.

How it works

When it's medicine time, the nurse puts numbing cream on the skin over your port. The cream makes your skin fall asleep. Then the nurse uses a tiny special needle to hook up to the button. Nurses call this getting accessed.

With the cream, most kids say it feels like a small push, or nothing at all. Medicine can go in through the port, and blood for tests can come out of it too. One little button, so many jobs.

Living with a port

Between hospital visits, your port just hangs out under your skin.

• You can run, play, and dance with it.
• Baths and showers are fine once the spot heals.
• Ask your team about swimming and rough sports — rules can be different for each kid.

When you're all done with treatment, the doctor takes the port out. You'll be asleep for that too. Then you get to say goodbye to it forever.