Long-haulers. Dealing with drains. Tips?

 I had an abdominal ultrasound yesterday, which showed that I have a huge amount of blood still in my abdomen (the hematoma runs from my mons all the way up to rib-level, and is semi-solid so they can't suck it out). PS said I don't have to wear the tight binder since it makes me swell so bad but wants me in a compression shapewear garment at least. 

I'd happily slip into some spanx but I still have my &%$#ing drain in! This sucker is in for the long haul. Holding steady at about 60cc/day, and has been increasing a little bit lately. They can't take it out until my hematoma is sizeably reduced. Which takes time because my body has to break it down and re-liquefy it, which is a little bit each day. It's going to be a minimum of 2 more weeks because my PS is out of town all next week. 

"You should be thankful that the drain is there, if it weren't you'd be in trouble." the nurse said. Yes, I know. But I think I'm allowed to kvetch a little bit because the insertion site burns when I walk, the bulb is getting filthy with cellular debris and looks gross, it limits what kind of clothing I can wear, and limits what I can do. I'm always having to change the dressing and re-seal the insertion site with bacitracin ointment because air gets in through the skin hole and inflates the bulb. I'm way too self-conscious about it to go out and visit friends etc. It necessitates me having to still take keflex 4x/day which is super upsetting to my stomach (diarrhea at least once a day) and has severely upset the uh, balance of flora elsewhere. I'm taking probiotics but they don't do a thing because my system is still flooded with antibiotics. 

I know there are people here who've dealt with drains for weeks and weeks. Do you have any advice/tips? Today marks the 3rd full week with this little plastic testicle, and I'd tear my hair out if I had any to spare. My PS's nurse said I'm officially their record for longest time with a drain. Guess he hasn't done many WLS patients because we tend to need the drains longer. 

I dunno what to do about the garment situation because the drain won't allow me to wear spanx or high-waist control top panties. Maybe I'm just stuck with my abdominal binder, which I can wear a little more loosely but it's bulky and digs into me along the seams and is visible under most of my normal clothes. It's constantly rolling up on the bottom. Did other people just stick with their binders? Did you find another solution?

Anything you can share to help me deal with this drain is appreciated. I'm doing the trick where I hang it from a neck lanyard while I shower,  but I can't think of anything else I could be doing to make it a little less awful. 

I am so sorry! I hated the drains! Mine were in for 10 days and I wanted to die. I had the issue with them rubbing and really irritating the insertion site as well as leaking from there. Mine came out of my mons area and one of my girlfriends is a post op PS nurse and she got a maxi pad and cut pieces out of it so it was able to be around the drain site. It helped tremendously. As far as clothing was concerned, I wore a lanyard during the day and had a swetshirt over it so they were concealed and out of the way.
Where do your drains come out of? How many do you have? I am trying to come up with ideas on what to do about compressions. I was MUCh happier in compressions rather than the binder.

 I will try the maxi pad trick thank you, it sounds much simpler than the gauze and tape method I'm using now. 

I have one drain, it comes out near my left hipbone. Exactly where my pants waistband would be, so I walk around with it rolled down. When it snaps back up unexpectedly it's a painful little zing on the drain site. Siiiigh. 

I suppose I could wear a corset haha. 

Man chick, you have totally drawn the short straw on this surgery stuff. Anyway, I was the reigning drain champ at a day shy of 6 weeks, but I believe I was recently dethroned.

So here was my deal. I did use the binder for a long time, but I also had an old spanx (perhaps get a cheaper version at walmart or target to sacrifice for the cause) and cut a big old hole in the crotch so I could put the drain out through it and still pull the spanx up Sometimes I'd just tuck the bulb back into the waistband of the spanx other times I'd secure it with a pin.  Now that considers the fact that I had drains in my groin crease and yours sounds higher up, but I'd think you could cut the hole where you need it to be to accomodate passing the drain through.  You could also do like I did and put it in a little fanny pack. If I was careful when pulling down the garment, I didn't have to put the drainback  through the hole to take the spanx down to go potty.  The fanny pack I used mostly when I had two or more drains because it allowed me to wear somewhat normal clothes-- just looked a bit dorky sporting the fanny pack. It was small and black though and barely showed and I was just glad to be out of the damn house!! Once I was down to one drain I got the the point I'd just cram the drain in my pocket (after Bubba taught me that trick--thanks Bubs!) and wear a longer shirt to cover. There is actually a pic in my profile of me and my best friend at a party. I have on black capris and a periwinkle bluish shirt and I have my drain in my pocket in that pic. I can't really tell. I also rocked dresses a couple times and those went well with the drain.

I did get to the point that pain at the insertion site wasn't a problem, then it got to where it was pinching and pulling again. One thing that helped a lot was securely taping the drain just a couple inches away from the insertion site to my thigh (or in your case wherever you can secure it) so it doesn't flop and tug. That might help limit the amount of wiggling to limit the frequency with which the skin opens around the tube.

Guess it is a good thing Doctor Fast Drain Taker Outer agreed to let you keep it in. I hope this makes sense. It is hard to describe this kind of stuff without a picture to go with.

Now get to re-liquifying that hematoma! Feel free to kvetch!

Try to have a good weekend!

Denise

 Those are excellent ideas, thank you. I was thinking of you when I asked for help, because you've been there. I do have an old pair of spanx that is crotchless already and I can try cutting a hole in a strategic spot, so that maybe I wouldn't need to even remove them to pee. (ooooh yeah, gotta love the crotchless garments for easy access). I dunno if it would make them unravel a lot? Maybe some glue at the edges of the hole? Yeah my surgeon changed his tune abruptly, after hearing from the radiologist how much blood was still in my abdomen. The radiologist told me the drain was what was saving me from a possible huge infection right now and I think my PS can appreciate that. I guess I'm getting what I asked for, huh? I wanted it to stay in and I'm getting at least 2 more weeks. 

I didn't have any major unraveling issue, but I know in the past when I've needed to seal an edge of fabric,  just barely heating it with a lighter will seal it, but don't go setting yourself on fire! I never did get totally comfortable peeing through the crotchless spot, but it is there if you like that sort of thing! LOL!

So how are you keeping yourself entertained? The days got to dragging pretty slow for me after a couple weeks. I got the point I would have hung my drain from an earring just to get out of the dang house!!

Hope you figure out how to get into a decent garment and out of the funky binder.

:)

 I've used clear nail polish for this - it will stop material from unraveling. You might need to reapply it every few days...

 You can buy Fraycheck (or something like that) from a fabric store which stops the unraveling.  I wore my binder for like 7 weeks before switchint to spanx because I just felt more comfortable in it, but it didn't roll on me.  I still wear it at night.  I had  3 drains, one in my crotch and one in each knee for 3 weeks, then 2 came out and the left knee stayed in for 6 weeks.  I didn't want to go out.  Wore loose dresses when I did, then when it was just the left knee, if I had to go out, I wore loose sweat pants over it.  Good luck to you.  I really didn't feel like I was recovering/human until that last drain came out.

Jan

The maxi pad trick saved my life. It was so simple. I told her that she ought to patent it. I mean she just cut out a groove for the drain line and it stayed in place with the help of my panties.

I have no clue how the hell you can possibly wear Spanx considering where the drain is. I had a compression garment that had eye hooks going up and down both sides of it with a zipper. If you had a garment like that, you could just not zip it up. I loved my compression garment. I would look into finding one that has eyehooks and zips up the side. The binder is just miserable.

Oh Lizzy!!  Thank goodness you're going to have the most rockin body when all of this is over.  You've paid your dues and deserve to look incredible!  I'm really sorry it's been such a darn long process for you.   You can make it for two more weeks if it means life will return to somewhat normal for you.