I will be attending my first seminar next Tuesday, and I'm sure I'll learn about it then, but my curiousity is killing me in the mean time.

What is the drain? What's it for? How long is it in? When is it used, since some patients said they didn't need it?

Thanks!!

Melissa

Surgical drains are basically a tube with holes in in that runs along the surgical area inside your body and has a bulb attached outside your body to pull fluids away form the internal wounds. Surgeons like them so that all the extra fluid is not just sitting in there and increasing risk for infection. It also speeds healing along because the body does not have to reabsoarb the fluids that drain. Think of the fluids like the ones you see when you have a cut, the clear blood tinged fluids you see on the bandaid. It really is no big deal, not that anyone likes it or anything, it does not keep you from moving or anything.

I was LUCKY my Doctor didn't believe in drains! No drain for me!

Myori did a good explaination. I had a JP drain (that is just the name for the type, but maybe you can google it for a visual) so I had a hole in my upper stomach, with a tube coming out of it (where the tube was coming out my surgeon had stitched the tube into place) and the tube ran down to a little bulb (about the size the bulb used to squeeze air into a blood pressure cuff). The bulb attached to an adhesive strip on my lower tummy that had a clip on it. So every couple of hours I would unclip the bulb and empty the drain, and then reposition it.

I had my drain for 6 days post op. I don't want to scare you, and everyone's experience is totally different, but in my opinion, that was the worst part of surgery. (I had a super-easy recovery with zero complications, so hey, I had to find something to complain about!) Having to live 6 days with the drain and emptying it (yuck). When it was time to come out my surgeon snipped the stitches around the tube, and pulled the tube out. He left that hole open (no glue or stitches) and it finally closed on it's own (last of my scars to heal.) But even though I wasn't a fan of the drain I was glad it was pulling excess Fluid out of my body cavity.

I did not have a drian.

I had a drain and my doctor said he wouldn't do the surgery without it. If you have a leak or an infection, it will show in the drain before you even had symptoms. My drain was a tube hanging out of the right night of my stomach and I had to empty it twice a day. The Fluid looks like kool aid (sorry TMI). It only fills a little bit and isn't too bad. My doctor removed it after 10 days. They remove it in the office and the hole literally closes on it's own. I was amazed it didn't need a stitch.

The drain is the pain the the butt. It tends to pull and tugs. sleeping is difficult. BUT the good thing about the drain, other than peace of mind with infection, etc is that I spent so much of my time hating the drain, I got through 10 days of Clear liquids fairly easily. So, in the end ....it was a good distraction! LOL.

The good news is that all this inconvenient stuff is TEMPORARY. By 3 weeks post op I was feeling Good and by 4 weeks, I was great! I even went sledding!!

Good Luck.

Thank you all so much for the information.

It sounds so gross, but I guess it's worth it in the end. Well, I know it's worth it.

I'll have to ask at the seminar that I'm going to if the surgeon uses a drain or not.

Thanks again!

Oh, and NJMom, if you don't mind me asking, where did you have your surgery done?

Thanks!

Melissa

You can see mine if you like. Check out the blog in my signature. It's not pretty but it is what it is. Mine didn't have a bulb. I guess it depends on the surgeon. It wasn't really that big of a deal. They took it out 2 days post op. They literally just pulled it out. It's not stitched or anything.