The appointment with the surgeon’s nurse went well this morning. She peeled off the tegaderm (a transparent, plastic dressing that had been covering my mastectomy wound for the past week.) It was a bit sticky, like removing a huge piece of really old band-aid. It hurt a little. Then she went on to remove the drainage tube. She asked if I wanted to sit up or lie down. I asked which way hurt less? She said it didn’t really matter, choose a position that would make me relax. So I chose to lay down.
I’m ashamed to say that I was much more nervous about the drain removal than about the surgery last week. Sleeping through the surgery was much easier.
I didn’t get any local anesthetics or numbing medicine today. I knew exactly when the nurse was going to pull the stupid plastic tube out and that didn’t really help me relax. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
The nurse asked Siang to hold my hand and I closed my eyes. She said “Ready?” and started to yank it out! Ouch! That was it. It was out. Whew! I’m so thankful that it went so quickly. It didn’t hurt as bad as I thought.
Yucky stuff continued to flow out through the hole on the side of my body after the tube was pulled out. The nurse let it drain for awhile and then put new dressing to cover the hole. Siang said the hole closed up after the tube was removed. The human body created by God is simply amazing.
We regret we didn’t take a before and after picture though.
For some reason, I feel more pain today after the tube is removed. I think I’m going to rest a day or two before doing any stretching exercise.
After we went home, Erick and Vivien were already waiting at our house. After a simple lunch, we spent the afternoon playing mahjong. It was a good low-impact arm exercise for me. :-)
Posted by annie at April 20, 2004 07:05 PM