One Drain Down, One to Go

The PA at the pulmonologist's office removed Cheryl's right drain today. Even though both sides have only minimal output, he advised that pulling them both might be a bit uncomfortable. After a swabbing the area with Betadine, he gave her a couple of shots of Lidocaine and cut the stitches holding the collar of the drain in place. After about twenty minutes of tugging and pulling about 1/8th of an inch at a time, the entire catheter (all 18 inches of it) was pulled free. They cleaned up the area and put a sterile dressing over the spot and said that it should heal up over the next few days. He explained that due to the way the catheter was routed up through the muscle wall that should be no danger of her having a lung collapse or any other complication.

Cheryl says that she could feel as the catheter slid out through her rib cage. She was very brave throughout the procedure and didn't make any fuss over it all. The PA told her that it would be okay to take whatever no-aspirin pain medicine she wants to help dull any pain that she may experience.

Even though Cheryl would like to have had both drains removed today, but since they didn't, she is glad that since they elected to remove the right drain since it was somehat in the way of her IP port. This will cut down on the problem of having to move the tape and dressing around so they could do her chemo more easily.

As the evening has progressed, she is feeling a dull ache in her side and has decided to go ahead and take a half of a Darvocet tablet before heading for bed.

As another note of praise, Cheryl was back up to 106 pounds after having lost down to 98.4 following the second round of chemo. Pray that the spot where the catheter was removed will heal quickly and that Friday's visit with the oncologist will bring good news on her progress.