2 out, 2 to go

My appointment went well.  2 drains were pulled.  2 are still left in.  The best part is that I get to shower tomorrow!  It's amazing how much better I feel with just those 2drains gone.  They hide better under shirts, can now just be pinned without pulling everything down, and even aren't that bad just hanging on a lanyard in front of me. 

I'm not sure if you are familiar with what these things are. So here's a quick lesson in case you see them hanging off of me or someone else in the future.  These grenade shaped devices with tubes are stitched in at the end of surgery to collect blood and lymphatic fluid.  By collecting it in the drain it keeps it from staying within your own body at the surgical site potentially causing infections.  The drains are stitch to you on the outside then have to be attached to you at all times during recovery.  They are emptied several times a day and the tubing is stripped daily to make sure there aren't any clogs.  You have to measure and record the amount drained each day because once it is below a certain amount, they can be removed.  This picture is a very pretty version.  Mine are always hanging off of me with a varying shades of red-yellow fluid. 

Now I did say, the 2 drains were pulled.  Literally pulled from my body.  They snipped the stitches and yanked.  There were two nurses working with us today and they considered doing them both at the same time.  Dr. J said that I didn't come here for torture and advised them to do one at a time.  It was crazy to see how long the drain that was inside me actually was.  No wonder they were so painful poking around inside me all week. 

He said everything looked great and my healing was progressing even better than he expected.  It was so good to have all my questions answered.  I am still kind of an emotional mess, but at least I know that regardless of how bruised, swollen, and disgusting they look to me everything is going well in the professionals opinion.