The Day I Ditched the Drain

Tuesday, 5th August

Today was drain removal day. You may remember I needed to get down to 40ml or less, for two consecutive days before they would be able to remove the drain. 

I had had just 30ml for the last two days so there was no reason at all for me not to be able to get it taken out. 

This was a really big deal, although the drain didn’t cause any pain, it did require me to carry it around in a bag over my shoulder 24/7.

Since messing up the vacuum last week I was being really careful as I didn’t want to have to change the bottle, and I was very conscious not to catch it on anything.

When I got to the hospital I was told the nurse I was due to see (Emma) was not actually in the building yet, so there would be a bit of a delay. There was another lady there that had an appointment 40 minutes before mine and was still waiting. 

After quite a wait they eventually got me in to see Mr Cathcart in the meantime so he could check my nipple situation out. It was now quite dark on the top and basically dead across the tip.

Again he seemed relatively unfussed by this and said that as the flesh beneath it was still pink and healthy, he was relatively confident that when this scab came off the rest of the nipple would heal nicely. 

After seeing him I was sent back out to the waiting room for Emma to see me to get the drain taken out. In hindsight I should have asked Mr Cathcart if he could take it out - its a relatively simple procedure.

Instead I ended up waiting for another load of time (i think we were waiting over an hour in total). 

Emma was still not back from whatever emergency it was she was tied up with so I was seen by the surgeon that I saw the very first time I came in - The one that said small and round is a good lump - She took my drain out and removed the waterproof dressings off both sides. 

The left side (that was just the implant replacement) was healed enough to not need a new dressing but the right side she put another dressing on, this time it wasn’t waterproof though. 

I practically danced out without my drain bottle hanging off me - it was amazing how less vulnerable I felt without it.