Having the port, port-a-cath, was a good decision for me. It provided access to a vein easily so that a nurse did not have to find one every three weeks when I had my treatments. She just needed to find the port and put the needle through my skin. It had a catheter connected to it that accessed a good vein below my left collarbone. It worked perfectly. Tuesday, January 14, 2025, four weeks after my last Kadcyla treatment, my surgeon removed the purple heart, my port. The port had not hurt, or really bothered me much, but I did not want it in me any longer than I had to. If you do not use the port for infusions, you need to go to the cancer center to have it flushed with a saline solution every three months to prevent infections. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but in order to do it, the nurse needs to access it as if you are going to get an infusion. The saline solution “tastes” like they are putting a chemical in your body. It’s nasty. It doesn’t take long, but why go thro...