Drain, drain, go away.....

Well, I couldn't make it to my next appointment with this seroma. My stomach was so tight and all that I could feel was pressure. My regular doc was not in, but his nurse came in to see me. The "fill-in" doc said that this would resolve itself on it's own if we had left it, but since I was there, we would try and see if we could drain some out. If there was a lot, he would decide what to do.

The first thing that he did was take out the remaining Penrose drain. Then, he inserted a long skinny tube in the area where the drain was. He attached a "turkey baster" syringe to the tube and began draining some of the fluid. (I was happy that he didn't have to use the needle. Not gonna lie....) He withdrew two full syringes (60mL) and decided that there was more in there than he thought. It went across my whole belly area.

Plan B: Insert a new drain. I can't believe that I am going to say this, but I was kind of excited to get a new JP. I know. I am a freak. It is just so much easier to maintain when all of the fluid goes to one place as opposed to catching it in a pad and not knowing how much is actually draining. So, the doc took out the syringe line and put in a shiny new JP drain.

By the time I drove home and emptied the drain, I had already released another 50 mL. So, for the next two weeks, I will be recording drainage again, in my comfy sweats. Someday  I will be drain free, just not today ! <p>