What is a Port and How Does it Work?

Before getting his port, I asked Benjamin's nurse if there was any way that we could see what it would look like once it was implanted and how it would work. Someone from the Patient Life brought this doll with a port inside its chest, a butterfly which is the needle inserted into the patient's port used to administer chemo and draw blood, the bandage that's used to hold the butterfly in place and an empty syringe that's attached to the line connected to the butterfly.

This is a video of Benjamin playing "Port Baby" as he calls it, with his Grandma, who was specifically instructed to speak in "a little voice". He fairly accurately shows the process of how he will receive chemo once his port is implanted.

We may just have found the next doctor in the family - check out his bedside manner!