Drain, Drain, go away . . .

You know what Tonya, you might just be right!  I reckon I would rather a syringe twice a week than what I have at the moment.  I'm waiting for a call back from my Doc.  In the meantime I keep giving it the evil eye, 'Dry up Dry up you B@stard' see if I can scare it into stopping :)

I'm thinking that getting a seroma syringed off each week is more fun than the drain.Hey,it was an outing and I didn't feel the needle cos the scarline area was  completely numb-still is.The drain might be starting to adhere to internal soft tissue and also irritating surrounding nerves.My drain site was sore for a long time afterwards.My surgeon passed it off as nerve disturbance. Anyway,talk to your surgeon- maybe it's more of a convenience for HIM to leave your drain in! I feel your pain cos I was soooo over the drain after 1 week.

                                     Tonya xx

Hi Trish,

I had my first chemo a week ago, and they intend to continue drain or no drain.  I came home with only panadeine forte, no talk or endone.  Maybe you need the endone more cos you are only 12 days post surgery? I dont know if you can stay on endone long term.  Five weeks of needles doesnt sound like much of an alternative to the drain does it?   My pain levels definitely improved as time went by, I think we must have mucked the bag up somewhat changing it to cause the level of pain I have at the moment.  Something is pulling/pushing against the stitch.  Maybe it's stuck to the ulcerated skin.  Who knows?  Do you still have a high output?  Lets just hope we dry up soon.  It's hard not to let it get you down, especially when you dont get much sleep.  I take some pain killers, try and get in a comfy position and then read a book or something to try and distract myself.  When I see the Doc again Im going to ask if there is anything I can do to try and help it dry up, but Im pretty sure the answer is nothing.

No endone, but panadeine forte which I usually try to save for nightime to help me get some sleep.  Thanks for being an ear, you will certainly hear my happy thoughts when I finally get unplugged.  Jenny xx

Hi Tonya,  thanks you have given me something to aim for now, (the six week mark) hope I dont break the record by too much.  And as you said, its the devil you know, fancy having to have it syringed off for so long, that couldnt have been very nice!  I have tried the old AHH bra, but have given up on that now too, think I will take your advice and just forget the bra completely until I'm unplugged.  Jenny xx 

You poor thing!-over 5weeks dragging that dreadful thing around with you.I would go nuts.My drain came out after a week and ah.... the relief. However,the downside was I got a seroma under my scarline which kept filling upwith fluid and I had to go have it syringed off twice aweek for 5 weeks.Either way we cop it! I don't know that you should wear a bra with the drain in.I wore singlets and loose tops while I was having those fun 5 weeks.Go ahead and moan-after 5 drain weeks you've earned the right to.Hope it settles soon and I'm sure it will- 6weeks was the longest I've heard of.

                               Tonya xx

You poor thing!-over 5weeks dragging that dreadful thing around with you.I would go nuts.My drain came out after a week and ah.... the relief. However,the downside was I got a seroma under my scarline which kept filling upwith fluid and I had to go have it syringed off twice aweek for 5 weeks.Either way we cop it! I don't know that you should wear a bra with the drain in.I wore singlets and loose tops while I was having those fun 5 weeks.Go ahead and moan-after 5 drain weeks you've earned the right to.Hope it settles soon and I'm sure it will- 6weeks was the longest I've heard of.

                               Tonya xx

I understand the pain ,it is awful ...are you still on Endone.

It's totally okay to whine and whinge here Monkeygirl.

I hope it settles .

I still have the same tubing that I woke up from surgery with.  It started off with the little squeezy ball and bag, they told me once it dropped to below 100mm a day they would shorten it.  It went down to 70mm for 2 days after nearly three weeks, so they cut the long tube off and attached a sticky sealed plastic bag thingy to my side, over the hole and the drain itself.  However ever since it has been back up well over 100mm a day.  The bag has a little 'tap' thing at the bottom, so I have to empty it and measure the output.  The sticky bag gets changed once every 12-14 days.  I have to stay on antibiotics until it comes out.  The skin around it is kind of all peeled off and gross.  Just changed it today (it was starting to come off)  Only trouble is if you dont get it positioned exactly right, it tends to pull or push on the stitch that is holding the drain into the wound.  Needless to say we have buggered it up a bit today.  So waiting to see if the pain settles overnight, or it I need to go back and have it professionally changed.  It's not that hard to change really, you just must have to have a knack for doing it.   So here I am whinging again, Im sure my husband is sick of it.  Every time I move, sit, stand, lay, whatever I'm catching my breath as it either pulls or pushes on the stupid drain.  My surgeon doesnt seem the least bit worried about it.  Maybe the drain is a good distraction, if I didnt have it to whinge about, I might be more worried about my chemo side effects!  They say there is an up side to everything.  I'm sorry to moan and groan, promise to make no more comments unless I have something good to say.