My drain is finally OUT after my 12/9/08 RNY
Just had to post because I am so happy. The surgeon finally removed my drain almost 8 weeks after surgery. I had a leak, and had to wear the drain while the leak healed. I did not want a 2nd surgery to repair the leak. I did not like the drain pain, the smell, the inconvenience, the bulge under my clothes, the changing of the bulb, but I didn't want that 2nd surgery either. Now, it appears the leak has healed and the drain came out and I feel good. Wanted all to know that not all leaks result in horrible emergency room trips, fevers, shock, etc. I know I was very lucky.
PS: Have lost 33 lbs since 12/9/08. :)
PS: Have lost 33 lbs since 12/9/08. :)
OMG.........you have just totally freaked me out!!! I just had my RNY on the 27th and my doctor also had to place a drain. I still have some leaking from the drain. It had stopped but I have noticed that there are a few times depending how much I do. The drain tube will fill up a little. Is it because I'm doing too much. I went the other day cause it was a little irritated where it was stitched up and it was hard for me to clean around there and there was some yuky gunky stuff coming out I thought it was getting infected and the dr. snipped a couple stitches so I could clean the area up. Well after he did that he asked me when I had my post op which I did have for the 10th but he decided to change it for the 24th. How long does it take for these dang things to heal. What do I do. I don't want to keep this thing in forever. He told me I wouldn't need a second surgery but but how am I guaranteed. I haven't had any fevers, shocks or anything else. But I just don't want to deal with this anymore.
What you're going through sounds almost exactly what I went through, except, lucky you, I went first! So you can maybe benefit from my experience. I also hated the not knowing how long the drain would be in. I worried it would be permanent. My PCP guessed April. My surgeon, however, always warned me "Til February" and he was right in the end. Just keep it clean, tape the gauze over the hole and go about your life. I returned to work in a full time demanding job 2 weeks after surgery. I was lifting laundry baskets and bending to clean litter boxes (albeit with some pain and discomfort from the drain) shortly thereafter. I returned to the gym 4 weeks after surgery - just no crunches or core work. I would loudly go "Ow Ow Ow" when I bent over and for some reason, it helped to verbalize. I did not want a 2nd surgery and my surgeon assured me I didn't need it. I had no fever, intense "take-me-to-the-emergency-room" pain, no spurting geysers of leak juice, no bleeding at the drain site. I didn't like when it looked red and "meaty" and tried not to look at it all that much. The tube started to come out on its own over the 8 weeks - the body was apparently expelling it as it healed. By the time the drain came out yesterday, the white part of the tube was showing and the majority of the tubing was outside my body. The bulb hung very low - I had to safety pin it up. Don't get freaked out about this, because I WAS, and now it's over. This is a bump in the road of your recovery. Try to have a good attitude about it, like "Oh well, what can you do?" You are just unlucky. However, way luckier than the people with the serious leaks. If you have to have a leak, ours is the best kind to have.
Sheesh, that must have really been awful. I know its hard for me....Its a pain to have to keep cleaning the area and dressing it. I just feel so uggh...disgusted by it. So far my doctor has told me another two weeks. So God willing I should have it out by the 24th if he thinks it looks ok. Like I said the draining that does come out of it now isn't gunky anymore. Its more of a clear fluid. It has no smell or odor to it. I don't know what it could be I was thinking its the fluids that I'm drinking. And there are only like a few times throughout the day that I notice a lot of fluid in the tubing of the drain. Its when I'm walking alot or putting pressure against the tube. Like when I clean the area and put the dressings on. So maybe its healing very slowly. I just hope it heals up. I don't want to keep this thing in for much longer! But what happens if it keeps draining and doesn't stop. I hope they wouldn't need to do surgery for that. How bad would it have to be in order for me to need to go through a surgery just to repair that leak? This is my first surgery ever and definitely my first drain so it just makes me wonder and worry. I'm so grateful to your with your reassurance that everything will be okay. I do believe you I just hate having this. But......I guess I'll take a look at the brighter side of things. It could have been a whole lot worse. I could have had some other type of complication. Why did your surgeon put a drain in you? My doctor as devastating as it sounds said I had given him complications during the surgery because of the actual size of my stomach. I laugh at it now but I can imagine how big my stomach must have been for my surgeon to say that. He was actually pretty shocked. I guess more so because I am tiny in by height. Not by weight at all. So he said he had to leave the drain in for a couple of weeks just to help my stomach heal I guess. Well thanks for your info and I appreciate the pep talk.
My doctor's standard practice is to leave the drain in for 1 week after surgery just in case there is a leak. He had only had 1 leak before mine, in 650 surgeries. I was one of his lowest risk patients every - I barely qualified for the surgery at a BMI of 35.8, and only then because I have high blood pressure. He was more shocked than I think, when, at the 1 week checkup, he had me do a standard dye test and the dye showed in the bulb.
He sent me for an MRI to see where the leak was, and determined it was at the back, by the staple line, a particularly difficult place to operate. And it was tiny. But a leak just the same. He was very demoralized - I guess I ruined his batting average. He felt awful when I gave him a sweater as a Christmas gift (I had an Xmas week appt. and felt I should get him something - am I an idiot? Some people said to sue him!)
Anyway, the stuff in the bulb seemed smellier and chunkier in in the first month. I asked if I could get an extra bulb so I could change it weekly on my own - it's easy to change, and they sent me home with extra gauze and table. I noticed that whatever color I drank or whatever flavor popsicle I ate, it showed in the drain bulb. I never enjoyed squirting it into the toilet bowl, but resigned myself to it. I didn't want to get depressed over it.
As I previously posted, the not knowing the end date was very worrying, but I pushed it out of my mind and, as the economy crashed around me, was grateful to have a good job to go to every day. I had never had surgery before, but I know after having the one, that I don't want another one unless it's elective (i.e. plastic surgery some day) and on my own terms. Going under anesthesia to fix a surgeon's "mistake" - well, I resented that idea. He said he checked for leaks during the operation and believe him. But he's human and I was merely unlucky.
Again, as previously posted, if you search around these boards, there are people with leaks who end up with feeding tubes, end up in the Emergency room with excrutiating pain and high fevers, etc. As long as you are draining, your leak is controlled. It is far worse to have a leak with no drain in you than not. Because then all that crap is inside you. Better out than in. And, as my body proves, given time,the body heals itself and expells the foreign object (the drain) and then one day, it's out. If you are not on a feeding tube now, I doubt that you will go on one. Your leak sounds mild, like mine.
There wasn't anything I didn't eat, or any experience (except more intensive exercise and sleeping on my stomach) that I didn't miss out on in these 8 weeks because I wore a drain. Be grateful it's still in you, sucking that garbage out while you are healing. And I might add that my personal experience has been that I do not dump or get nauseous. I have eaten just about anything I have tried and kept it down. I haven't vomited once. So, there are people out there with no leaks who 4 -5 - 8 months later are posting that they are still on purees and can't keep meat down, etc. I would rather have the drain for 8 weeks and the easy-going pouch I got than their strictures and fussy pouches with no leaks.
This post was long, but I'm trying to help :) Feel better and send me a message any time.
He sent me for an MRI to see where the leak was, and determined it was at the back, by the staple line, a particularly difficult place to operate. And it was tiny. But a leak just the same. He was very demoralized - I guess I ruined his batting average. He felt awful when I gave him a sweater as a Christmas gift (I had an Xmas week appt. and felt I should get him something - am I an idiot? Some people said to sue him!)
Anyway, the stuff in the bulb seemed smellier and chunkier in in the first month. I asked if I could get an extra bulb so I could change it weekly on my own - it's easy to change, and they sent me home with extra gauze and table. I noticed that whatever color I drank or whatever flavor popsicle I ate, it showed in the drain bulb. I never enjoyed squirting it into the toilet bowl, but resigned myself to it. I didn't want to get depressed over it.
As I previously posted, the not knowing the end date was very worrying, but I pushed it out of my mind and, as the economy crashed around me, was grateful to have a good job to go to every day. I had never had surgery before, but I know after having the one, that I don't want another one unless it's elective (i.e. plastic surgery some day) and on my own terms. Going under anesthesia to fix a surgeon's "mistake" - well, I resented that idea. He said he checked for leaks during the operation and believe him. But he's human and I was merely unlucky.
Again, as previously posted, if you search around these boards, there are people with leaks who end up with feeding tubes, end up in the Emergency room with excrutiating pain and high fevers, etc. As long as you are draining, your leak is controlled. It is far worse to have a leak with no drain in you than not. Because then all that crap is inside you. Better out than in. And, as my body proves, given time,the body heals itself and expells the foreign object (the drain) and then one day, it's out. If you are not on a feeding tube now, I doubt that you will go on one. Your leak sounds mild, like mine.
There wasn't anything I didn't eat, or any experience (except more intensive exercise and sleeping on my stomach) that I didn't miss out on in these 8 weeks because I wore a drain. Be grateful it's still in you, sucking that garbage out while you are healing. And I might add that my personal experience has been that I do not dump or get nauseous. I have eaten just about anything I have tried and kept it down. I haven't vomited once. So, there are people out there with no leaks who 4 -5 - 8 months later are posting that they are still on purees and can't keep meat down, etc. I would rather have the drain for 8 weeks and the easy-going pouch I got than their strictures and fussy pouches with no leaks.
This post was long, but I'm trying to help :) Feel better and send me a message any time.
Thank you, for your words of encouragement. I too have been trying different types of foods. Pureed form of course right now. But so far so good. Nothing has come up. I do feel like you. Like my pouch is different than others. Maybe not as constricted as others. I don't notice any liquid the color of my popcicles. I just get some icky liquidy stuff. Its more of a runny & gooy. Kind of like a saline liquid smell. Not funky or chunky. I was reading on this message board that another RNY had a drain and after 2 weeks her doctor took it out but that it would just be absorbed into your body. I thought it would be bad for that to happen but I guess not. I wonder if it all depends where its at. Or what your leaking. I don't want this drain to bring my happiness down but its hard. Especially when you have to deal with it every minute of the day. I wi**** would just heal up and let me be already. Normally my body heals very quickly but sheesh I don't know what's happening on the inside of me. I too agree with you I will never have another surgery like this again! I am happy with my decision I just hate the whole drain thing. But like you said it could be a whole lot worse. And I'm not on a feeding tube so that's another good thing. My drain is different than the one you had I believe. Like I said it's a long tube and it has a little tiny bulb area that you pop the plug into. Theres not a bulb or anything else that needs to be replaced on it. I just pop it open drain the fluid and close it back up. Well I'm due to go to my doctor on the 24th of this month. Tues. would have been my 2 wks post op but now I have to wait almost a month. So we'll see what happens. Like you said I was just one of the unlucky ones. But in all reality not too unlucky cause it could be a whole lot worse when you really look at things. Thanks and like I said I really appreciate you helping me with your experience and all. I felt alone. 
the consistency of the stuff in the drain will get less chunky the longer you wear it and more straight liquid. the bulb I had was at the end of the tube and I also flicked the little cap off and squirted it into the toilet bowl. Then I replaced the cap. The sides of the bulb expanded as it filled with liquid through the day. Once a week, I took the bulb completely off and put on a fresh bulb, to save repeat trips to the doctor and time off from work.
You are not alone. I just did this a month ahead of you. The reason why the stuff isn't in my body now is that the path of the drain tube has been healing up and it was ready to close right up to the opening in my outer skin. By removing the drain, it can now close up completely. My gauze had only been slightly stained and I feel fine now. In one week I bet I'm 100%.
You are not alone. I just did this a month ahead of you. The reason why the stuff isn't in my body now is that the path of the drain tube has been healing up and it was ready to close right up to the opening in my outer skin. By removing the drain, it can now close up completely. My gauze had only been slightly stained and I feel fine now. In one week I bet I'm 100%.
Well Thanks again.....I guess I am just so worried about having to have another surgery or something. I don't know. I do notice that the consistency is very liquidy but to me it just doesn't seem right for anything to be still draining from there after 2 weeks. I feel like it should be clean and dry with no juice. But I'm no doctor and my doctor did reassure me everything was ok and did not have to have a second surgery. So in all he's the one who knows best. My gauze is slightly stained but has been clearing up as the days go by and the area where my stitches are at have healed nicely. And the area around the tube looks the same too. Well 2 more weeks of hell. Lets hope they go quick cause I don't know how much more I can take of this.
Oh well thats really good to know. I was expecting it to completely stop, like you said. I didn't think it was suppose to keep draining. I thought with the days and time it should stop and nothing should come out at all. That makes me feel more at ease. Thanks for taking the time and answering my questions and concerns. 
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