Exercising with Port

[bev618]

Has anyone experienced lifting or heavy exercising with a port? I lift and work out on a regular basis and plan to continue as long as I feel strong enough but want to see if anyone has had any issues with the port.

thanks!
Bev

[NanaJoni]

Hey Bev - I'm going to a physical therapist for help with adhesions and the scar tissue from my bi-lateral mast. I have several upper body stretching exercises I do along with pulling with the stretchy rubber cords. I also do 5 different arm exercises with 2 lb weights. No problems at all - in fact I feel much better when I do them. Also try to do at least a mile a day on a recumbent bike which, of course, doesn't afffect the port area at all. I did check with my onc doc before starting but he was very happy I was working with the physical therapist. She's a bc specialist and I was referred to her by my radiation onc. She did tell me if I had pain in the port area to stop the working out til I see her again. Good luck.

[Joanna J]

Bev,I think it was a freak thing But; my port turned clear over after 2 months after being placed!!! CRAZY;But true,Never did get a clear answer as to Why,but I guess;Just my luck. Joanna

[Westcoastgirl]

I wt trained while I had my port (upper left chest) but had to be quite careful. I couldn't do pushups nor any exercise that pulled my left arm across my chest. I did a lot of stretching but really had to watch which chest exercises I did and used way less wt than I normally would have been able to. The way I could tell if the exercise was going to be bad was to put my right hand on the port and then make the movement of the exercise with my left arm. If the port moved way too much I knew it was a bad idea. It is after all stitched in place to your pectoral. I was able to work around it though and worked all my other body parts. I also did yoga and tried very hard without detriment. When I was finally rid of my port I was able to jump back in doing my chest exercises and pushing up the wts I used. I was doing some heavier wts for my chest and pushups at the beginning and then I had trouble one time with the port working properly when I went for my infusion and the nurses gave me heck. There is the theory that when we wt train one side of the body there is some transfer to the other side so there is the option of doing one armed d/b chest presses etc. Hope that helps. I found the port really hard to get used to but sure did prefer it to the alternative.

[jjnew]

I exercise as often as I can find the time and have not had any issues with my port. I do not lift as much weight as before my diagnosis, but that is mainly because of the mastectomy healing process. I have no issues running long distances and or doing kickboxing classes. I think exercising has helped me a lot through chemo, and I hope you feel well enough to keep it up!