I wish that there were a support group for this darn thing. Some days, it feels like I got into the ring with Rocky and I was Ivan Drago. My stomach area feels so tight and it is a constant ache. Getting up out of the seated position or from laying down is a chore and I end up hunched over until I can eventually straighten myself out. The good news is that it is not permanent and it is really a minor complication.
The explanation that my doctor gave me about my continuous draining was that after the surgery, the cavity where the tissue was removed from did not close up completely on its own. Any gaps allow serum (drainage) that occurs naturally in the body to collect in the empty space. Since there is a mini-vacuum installed there, it sucks all of the liquid out.
Solution: Sclerosing the seroma. My doctor took the drainage tube off of the bulb, then injected it with an alcohol/lidocaine solution, which went directly into the cavity. He then clamped it off and left me. I waited in the examining chair. And waited. And waited. After about 30 minutes, he reconnected the tube to a new bulb and the solution came back out. After dumping it, I was able to go home. What they failed to tell me was that the liquid coming out now was no longer "grapefruit juice" or "lemonade", it was straight up vampire blood. Pretty gross.The drainage amount is down, so yeah me !
The idea behind sclerosing the cavity is to irritate the lining and make it try to heal on its own. This may work the first time, or it make take a few repeat treatments to obtain the desired result. At this point, I am willing to try anything because it doesn't seem to want to close up on its own. The alternative is to go back to the surgery room, open up and clean the area out. The last thing that I want right now is another recovery period. I am finally able to do things that I couldn't do a few weeks ago. I am hoping that it will not come to this. On the positive side, it would give me more time to work on the blog :)
