A Disappointing Day

Yesterday was the follow-up appointment with my plastic surgeon.  I kind of expected to get one drain removed, although I knew that the other one would be staying.  The output has to be less than 30cc in 24 hours, and I have one that will do 30 cc in one draining.  The other, however, has been hovering right around that 30 cc area and I was pretty sure it would go.

So Dad offered to take me to Independence to meet Kevin, saving him 40 miles of driving to get me to this appointment.  He picked me up, stopped by Sonic for me (he's a good Daddy like that) and we met up with Kevin.  As I got out of Dad's car and into Kevin's truck, the air hit me (it was very blustery yesterday) and I thought, "Why does my side feel wet?"

We got all of my stuff transferred to the truck and Dad took off.  I asked Kevin to please look at my side as I raised up my jacket as high as my limited-motion arm will allow.  I was soaked from just under my armpit to the waistband of my jeans.  WTH????  I haven't had any issue like this since surgery.

So here we are in Independence, headed to Leawood, KS, and I'm soaked.  Kevin had requested that I bring his tennis shoes to him, and I had grabbed a T shirt, too, since he gets so dirty at work.  He had remembered a shirt, so I had a spare T shirt, although it was quite big.  The other problem was the bra being soaked, and not having an ace bandage (my typical undergarment lately) with me.

We find a CVS, and bought gauze and could NOT find a normal ACE bandage.  It's a PHARMACY for goodness sake!  The closest they had was the kind that sticks to itself.  It wasn't ideal, but it would work to get us there.  We paid and then went together into the ladies' room for him to wrap me to the best of his ability.  Have I mentioned Kevin's willingness to do whatever it takes?

So much for stopping for a nice dinner somewhere, since I was now in an ace bandage, well, you don't want to be seen that way for MANY reasons.  Not just the imbalance.  The drains have to go somewhere and, well, it was going to be a drive-through for dinner.  Period.  That resulted in us arriving at the plastic surgeon's office nearly two hours early.  Kevin saw our (amazingly wonderful) nurse, Terri, and explained the situation to her.  She got us back into a room super-fast, cut the stupid ACE thing off me and got me into a gown.  From there on, I didn't mind waiting.

When it was our turn, Terri showed me how to "strip" the drains, and one of them needed it, which was the reason for the small amount on the last log entry for that one.  Turns out, even the other (slower) one wasn't coming out yesterday.  I got sent home with both.  I wanted to cry.

Everything else was great news.  He (the surgeon) said that everything looked awesome and I was healing very well and he had no concerns.  He answered any questions that I had and said that drain one would probably come out on Monday.  We'll see.  LOL  Drain two will be a bit longer.  As aggravating as it is to have them, removing them too early can be catastrophic, and I understand that.  I just wanted to cry.

So we got in the truck, I took my overdue medication, and cried until falling asleep.  Poor Kevin.  LOL  We came home and I wanted to be alone, so I decided to try sleeping in my bed.  BAD choice.  I woke up this morning hurting quite a bit.  Getting a shower and a re-wrap helped a lot, but it's back to the recliner for me. I think it'll be a while before I can comfortably sleep in bed again.

The bottom line is:  I'm healing well.  I need to get over myself when there are little setbacks, and I need to be more thankful for my friends who care.  I also need to travel with spare clothing, but that's another issue all together.