How to Sleep With a Chemo Port: For Some, Pregnancy Pillows Are Key to Comfort
Key takeaways:
A chemo port is a small device that’s placed under the skin to make treatments like chemotherapy easier.
But a port can also make finding a comfortable position for sleep a challenge.
One way to make laying in bed more comfortable and to get better sleep with a chemo port is to use pillow wedges or pregnancy pillows.
When she was 32 years old, Shauna O’Brien never expected to have breast cancer — much less to be an expert on how to use maternity pillows to help deal with the treatments. Now, 2 years later, Shauna — a nanny in New York City — is doling out advice as one of the hosts of a breast cancer podcast for women under 40.
As someone diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age, Shauna had to figure out a lot on her own — including how to find a comfortable sleep position after she had had multiple surgeries. She found out that sleeping with a maternity pillow helped her to deal with the discomfort of laying in bed after she had a chemo port inserted in her upper chest, for one thing.
A chemo port, often just called a “port,” is a small device that’s placed under the skin to make treatments like chemotherapy easier. Instead of having a needle inserted into your vein each time you receive treatment, it goes into the port. The port has a thin tube that connects to a larger blood vessel. And it allows medications to be delivered directly into your bloodstream and makes it easier to obtain blood for blood tests.
Before being treated for cancer, Shauna had always slept on her side or on her stomach. But her treatments made it necessary for her to sleep on her back. The pillow, she says, helped make it easier for her to fall asleep.
When a lump in her breast became cause for worry
In March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Shauna noticed a lump in her breast. She went immediately to have it checked out, but her gynecologist didn’t think there was any reason to worry, she says.
“They said it was too big, and it was probably fatty tissue,” Shauna says. “They said I was too young to have breast cancer. And then, you know, New York City kind of shut down. I felt like, ‘If she’s not worried, I’m not going to be worried.’”
But by the end of the year, she could tell it was something she needed to worry about.
“By December of 2020, my entire breast had changed,” she says. “I got out of the shower and caught a glimpse of my breast in the mirror, and I was mortified. It was so much bigger, and the texture had changed. It was discolored. I just knew it was bad.”
Because of the pandemic, she had to wait until January 2021 to have a mammogram. When she did, the doctors confirmed her fears.
“They basically told me during the ultrasound that I still needed to get the biopsy, but they were almost 100% sure that it was cancer,” she says.
Shauna’s cancer was hormone-positive, so her initial treatment was surgery. After a mastectomy of both breasts, her doctors found the cancer had traveled to her lymph nodes.
“I actually had to go back a month after my mastectomy and have an axillary dissection to have all the lymph nodes taken out of my right arm,” she says.
With her lymph nodes affected, Shauna opted to have chemotherapy to treat any cancer that remained. But her doctors told her that trauma to her right arm could lead to lymphoedema — a buildup of fluids in soft body tissues. Left with only one arm to do treatment with, she opted to get a port instead.
Between May and September of 2021, she received chemotherapy through the port located on the left side of her chest, near her collarbone. But having the port inserted left her upper chest feeling tender and uncomfortable, she says.
“After my mastectomy surgery and after my lymph node dissection surgery, I was having a hard time sleeping in general. Having to shift to sleeping on my back took weeks,” Shauna says. “By the time I got my port placed, it was really, really tender.”
She adds, “Granted, because of my double mastectomy, I didn’t really have any sensation in my chest. I could feel pressure, but I couldn't feel pain. But it was just a lot to get used to. I kind of felt like I just didn’t know how to live in that body yet.”
Figuring out how to sleep comfortably despite a chemo port
To find ways to acclimate, Shauna looked to online cancer support groups. On the message boards, people suggested buying pillow wedges and pregnancy pillows.
“A lot of women for their mastectomy recovery had bought pillow wedges to keep them upright, so it was more comfortable for them and made it easier to get out of bed. And a lot of women had said they put a pregnancy pillow around themselves,” she says. “I ended up buying the pillow wedges and a pregnancy pillow.”
She would lay on the pillow wedge and put the pregnancy pillow around her to support her arm at night. But sleeping with the port still wasn’t easy at first.
“Once the port was placed, I had to keep the bandages on for like 10 days,” she says. “I would say 2 to 3 weeks after getting it placed, I was able to finally have a good night's sleep. But even then, I don't think I slept well until the end of chemo.”
After Shauna finished chemo, she had radiation treatment, during which the pillows made her comfortable enough to sleep. And after radiation, she had breast reconstruction surgery, which meant she once again needed the pillows to help her sleep on her back.
Throughout her cancer treatment, and even after, Shauna used the pillows to support her as she slept.
“When I started to feel a little bit better, I got rid of the pillow wedge. And then I just kept the pregnancy pillow, because I would be able to put one arm underneath the pillow and position it in between my arm and my chest,” she says. “I kind of gave myself that cushion so that I could get comfortable laying on my side.”
She adds, “It took me a really long time to sleep on my stomach with my port. By the end of chemo, I felt a little bit more comfortable doing that.”
‘You need your rest during cancer treatments’
Even though her treatment and reconstruction procedures are finished, Shauna still uses the pregnancy pillow to help her sleep.
“I love the pregnancy pillow, and I’m not pregnant,” she says. “It’s just very comfortable in that position. I have a lot of scar tissue on my ribs from the drains from my double mastectomy. And, obviously, I have my implants now. So the pillows actually give me a lot of protection — a cushion that makes it more comfortable.”
In November 2023, Shauna will be 2 years cancer-free. On her podcast, she and her co-host, Rosalina Felipe, talk about tips and tricks for dealing with breast cancer at a young age — from sleeping to keeping your port safe from car seatbelts. One of the points she emphasizes is that using helpful tools, like pillows, to get to sleep is important because of how essential rest is for recovery.
“Spend the money and find comfortable pillows and pillow wedges, because you need your rest during cancer treatments,” Shauna says.
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