no more drains!!!

went to the doc today and lost the JP drains!!!  woo freakin' hoo!  i get to wear underwear again and i have the go ahead to take a shower tomorrow, something everyone can be grateful for!!

he also took out all the remaining staples...   i do have a minor infection in a small section of my incision, so i get to be on antibiotics for a week or so...  but just being able to move more comfortably is enough to make my whole week!!




jeris

congrats!...what kind of surgery did you have?......I only had 1 JP drain and thankfully it only stayed in 6 days post-op....

sorry to hear you have a minor infection..antibiotics will do the trick and on the upside will help relieve any constipation you may or may not have from pain meds ( I was on percocet) and they clogged me up...

also my PS told me to apply neosprin at the drain sites and they make it in a gel tube with pain relief so it will take away any stinging or tenderness!

Happy Healing!

I forgot to ask you if you have to wear compression garments?

Yayyy! Drains out and underwear on was a HUGE victory for me!

i had a fleur-de-lys tummy tuck on 3/22...   and 3 drains that were miserable for 3 weeks....

i got the okay to switch from the binder to my spanx high-risers - they give good support to the abdominals and don't ride up like the binder did...


jeris

I loved it when the drains came out too! Yay for you!
Lisa

I am envious!  I had a TT on 3/9, had the upper leftside drain removed the next week, but still have the lower drain on the right side.  Tomorrow will be 5 weeks and it is not slowing down.  They want me producing no more than 40 in a 24 hour period and yesterday's total was 170!  Doc does not seem too concerned.  She said I am "juicier" than most.  I want this drain to slow down and be removed when it should be cause I do not want to be asperated!  But my gosh...my kingdom for a shower!!!!

today i got to take my first shower since the morning of surgery, and i swear, if my laptop was waterproof, i'd still be in there!!!   now i desperately need a pedicure - i rolled a lot of dead skin off my poor tootsies...

my doc said they don't like leaving the drains in longer than 3 weeks because of the risk of infection...  he said usually the excess fluid will get resorbed by my body, but there is always the risk of a seroma... so he said to watch out for signs of swelling and bloating in that area..... 

he recommended "milking" the lines frequently, like once an hour or so -- it keeps the suction going and drains more fluid that way....  i started doing that and the output reduced a lot...  you might try that......


jeris

 I know what you mean about being in the shower for so long if you could.  I plan to just stand under tha****er with my arms outstretched till the water turns cold!  Can't wait!

I do milk the drains several times per day, but will try the hourly routine.  Anything to speed it up!  They do have me watching the site for signs of infection.  I have sailed right through the surgery and for me to get nailed by an infection 5 weeks later would be terrible!

My sis treated me to a pedicure two weeks ago and it was heaven!

I only had my drain in (1) for 6 days post-op and I did "milk" it....I did not know you were suppose to do that but I did...thank good ness I did not do anything wrong...It decreased my output alot because the bulb would pop open so frequently from no fluid suction.

My question to you or anyone else.....did you ever experience any long stringy clots getting stuck in your drain? what did you do to get them to pass through when milking did not work?