The drain incident

Chris was sent home from the hospital with three drains, each of which consists of a clear, flexible rubber 'bulb' (like a kitchen baster bulb) which is attached to a tube that enters her body. To activate the drain, you squeeze the bulb and then insert a plug which holds the bulb in a deflated state; the bulb tries to regain its shape and causes suction in the tube, which forces excess fluid in the surgery site to collect in the bulb. I had to empty each of the three drains every day by removing the plug and pouring the fluid into a cup, which had markings on the side to indicate the amount of fluid collected. Got that?

Anyway, part of 'drain maintenance' is clearing the tube of any potential clogs, which is done by 'milking' the tube.
This is done by holding the tube at the end nearest the entry into the body and squeezing the tube and stretching it toward the bulb, thereby forcing anything that is in the tube to move into the bulb.

I am getting to a point here, be patient.

The drain tube is held in place by a stitch at the entry point; the stitch goes around the tube and then through some skin, which holds it in place.

The reason I'm explaining all of this is because one night, while milking the drain, I accidentally pulled the tube the wrong way and pulled it about 1/8 inch out of Chris. AHHHH! The problem was that it pulled the stitch taught and the stitch was now tugging at Chris' skin at the entry point.

Saturday night at 11:45pm she told me that she couldn't sleep because the stitch felt like a thorn poking her. The pain pills didn't help. The only thing to do was clip the stitch, but if I do that I have to remove the drain. AHHHHHH! Some of the literature that we took home with us mentioned doing just that and how to do it, but the thought of pulling a tube out of Chris' body gave us both the heebie-jeebies. I couldn't leave her uncomfortable, however, so I clipped the stitch which gave her immediate relief. She then took two pain pills and, while we were waiting for them to kick in, I called the resident plastic surgeon on call to make sure I that what I was going to do was correct. Finally, at 1:15am we screwed up our courage and Chris said to me, "Listen, nurse Dave, if you start pulling don't run screaming from the room until it's completely out!". I counted to three, she took a few deep breaths, and I pulled. There was about 8 inches of tubing buried in her chest... it was rather freaky, to say the least, but we both were proud of ourselves and Chris slept well that night.

Monday, June 24 we had a post-op appointment with the surgeon and they removed the remaining two drains. He said everything looked good and we didn't have to come back until it was time for the next surgery, which is when they shape the breast and tattoo on a nipple.

The very next day at about 9:00pm, Chris said that it felt like the reconstruction was expanding... there was a considerable amount of pressure and it was uncomfortable. We called the resident on call and explained the situation, and he wanted us to come in so he could look at it. Sometimes fluid builds up or there is bleeding and they have to go back in to do some minor repairs. We scrambled to get ready to go (it's a two-hour drive to UCLA), called Kate and got her out of bed, but she rallied to the cause as usual and came over to stay with the critters. We left at 11:30, got to the bottom of the mountain and realized that we had left a critical bag at the house. So we had to drive back and get it... we left the house for the 2nd time at 12:30am. 2:15am Arrived at emergency 3:30am The doctor arrived and was concerned about what he saw, so he decided to admit her into the hospital and then call the surgeon that performed the surgery.

7:30am The plastic surgery team was doing their rounds and found us in emergency. They didn't like what they saw either, and wanted the main surgeon to check it.

8:30am Chris was delivered, on a gurney, to her room. We had a sweet reunion with several of the nurses that we had befriended during her previous stay there.

9:30am The surgeon arrived, looked at it, and said, "This is the same as it was Monday. There is nothing wrong with it. Go home!"

We had had only a few hours of sleep while waiting in emergency, but we went out for breakfast (they hadn't let
her eat anything in case she needed to go into surgery and I hadn't wanted to leave her long enough to eat). We drove home and I was falling asleep at the wheel, so we stopped in the covered parking of a mall and I took a nap.

Another week has passed since that little adventure and she is getting better every day. Today for the first time since her surgery, she was able to wash and dry her hair and take a shower without any help. (Too bad... we were having fun with THAT!)

We have our first Oncology appointment on Tuesday, July 9.

This update was posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2002 at 7:49:34 AM (USA Central Time)
Last updated on Thursday, October 02, 2003 at 10:42:28 AM (USA Central Time)