It’s been almost three weeks from my surgery, and all things considered, life is going pretty swell. The pathology of all the cells they removed came back and there were NO traces of cancer in anything they removed, which means I had a “Pathologically Complete Response” (PCR) to chemotherapy – which is the best possible outcome from chemo. I spend one night in the hospital and after 3 days on the “heavy” drugs, I moved to just Tylenol. And at this point, the only meds I’m taking are antibiotics. Because I left the hospital with four drain tubes inserted underneath my armpits so that I wouldn’t have severe swelling and so that the fluid build-up wouldn’t slow down my recovery.
Drains are the pits (they are also located right near my pits). They are basically long plastic tubes that are wrapped around my boobs (on the inside) and are coming out of open holes in my body (hence the antibiotics). The drains are SUPER uncomfortable. Not painful per-se, so long as I have half a dozen pillows protecting my arms, armpits, drain holes and boobs from one another. But, with tubes that have no stretch to them, they make for an incredibly restricted range of motion in my arms, making everyday tasks like reaching for the remote, grabbing a glass, and scratching my head VERY difficult.
Plus, at the end of the drain tubes are drain bulbs, fist sized collectors of all the fluid that is draining out of my chest cavity (plus some chunky bits of residual armpit and upper chest fat cells that got dislodged during surgery – its SUPER GROSS). These drain bulbs can’t just dangle from their drain tube strings, so I need to have a mechanism for carrying them with me everywhere I go. I’ve been using a waist apron with pockets that my mom sewed for me (thanks mom!) but it means that I have this bulky bulb filled apron that really messes with the way my shirts fall (and shirts are going to drape so nicely with my new rack!).
And maybe worst of all, the drain bulbs need to get emptied, and the fluid measured, every 8-12 hours. Which is a necessary evil because the drains have to stay in until the fluid they collect in a 24 hour period is less than 35ml (~1.2 ounces) for two days in a row. The first two drains came out 2 weeks after surgery. drain #3 came out today. And pesky drain #4 will likely be in until at least this Friday. Ugh.
Unfortunately, I still have a drain in my body, and its itchy and annoying and a little hurty.
Fortunately, drains have been the worst part of mastectomy recovery – its all been manageable and not nearly as awful as I was expecting.
Fortunately Unfortunately 