February 6, 2009
Oh my Friday was busy. I woke up early to start working (I am a medical coder and even though I normally don't work from home, my employer is letting do what I can at home to keep up and so I won't take anymore time off). At about 10:15am my mom and I left to go see my surgeon, Dr. A. I was hoping to get my drain removed today.
My mom is so funny. She drives, but I wouldn't consider her a "driver". She doesn't like to drive outside her town of 1200 (she has my dad who does all the driving, so why would she need to), but she HATES driving in Maryland. I know she sounds like one of those little old ladies that is a terror behind the wheel (she is absolutely not), but driving in Maryland (DC) traffic is very nerve racking for her. So we left 1 hour and 15 minutes early to get to my appointment 35 minutes away. I basically lied to her and told her that we were in Gaithersburg, when actually we were in Bethesda (big difference in traffic), but she gets me there every time (be it 30 minutes early, but by god we get there!!)
Nickie (my Mother-in-law) also met us there. Dr. A saw us early. Brought all of us to the exam room where I stripped down (nope, no more modesty here) and I wrapped the paper sheet around me. Dr. A came in and checked out my incisions. She decided she could remove the tape under my arm and on my breast. I don't know what hurt worse under my arm, her pulling the tape off the incision or pulling the tape off of my underarm hair (I have not been able to shave for about a week-yuck!!) She was very concerned about the fact I that I could not lift my arm above a 90 degree angle and gave me a referral for physical therapy. She wanted me to make another appointment to see her in 10 days (after having physical therapy for a week), but she thought that the incision looked "pretty" (at least it was healing).
She pulled the tape off on the incision on my breast. This wasn't as "pretty", there were a few areas that the edges did not heal so I was seeping in certain areas. She put on a gauze bandage and was on her way.
Anne removed the drain. She came in and took off the plug that connected to the drain. Then she took a syringe and connected it to the bottom of the tube and sucked out all the gook. I call it gook, it was nasty! There was yellow fluid, blood and some chunks.... gross. It didn't hurt, but I could feel it getting sucked out of my arm. By this time I was completely leaning on my mom. Anne then snipped the stitch that was holding the tube in, that pinched. She then cut the tube and took a set of needle-nose pliers to take out the tube. Of course I didn't see this, Mom told me later (thank goodness, I would have either fainted or puked on her). When it was time to remove the drain, Anne told me to take three deep breaths. On the last breath she counted, "One," and she pulled it 1/2 way out, "and two" she pulled it the rest of her way out. It didn't hurt exactly, just felt totally different and strange, but by then the damage had been done. I had to lay on the table, which hurt cause my arm was on a hard surface, it was either that or fall over on top of my mom. Finally after a few deep breaths I felt okay enough to sit up.
When we left the exam room I made another appointment for February 20th, so hopefully I will have more use of my arm. It was 11:30am (the time my appointment was suppose to occur). I had to open the first of my two containers of Barium (banana flavored) for my next appointment at 1:00pm... But that is another blog.
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