My Little "Oops"

Yesterday was Sunday morning. The kids spent the night at my parents and it was just me and Kevin at home. I decided to stay at home from worship service and get a little more rest before the kids came home. Kevin left for church and I decided to go ahead and get cleaned up for the day and that is when I had my little "oops."

So, I have told you about my the drains that have been plaguing me since my first surgery. If you want to really know about the drains you can click here. At this surgery, Dr. Lawson removed both drains and gave me one back. She told Kevin that she did inserted it differently so it wouldn't drain as much and would be able to be removed earlier. So it was doing it's job and I was doing my job by emptying it twice a day.

Well on Sunday morning, I went to take a "shower". I still had a piece of gauze wrapped around the drain tube and it was taped to my skin. Now this drain is UNDER my left arm. I use the fingernails of my right hand to pick the tape off but the gauze is wrapped around the the tube. The only way to get it off is to use a pair of scissors. Common sense should have told me to wait for Kevin to come home or at least to pull the gauze down the tube so I could reach it better. Common sense did not prevail that morning. I lifted my arm and went snip. In my hand, I held the piece of gauze along with the tubing of the drain and I had a piece of tubing sticking out from under my arm.

I immediately called Kevin and he came back home. Fortunately he had just left and was not far away. He was ready to take me to the emergency room. We decided to call the doctor first. Kevin spoke to the doctor on call (I was too shocked at my own stupidity to do anything). Since I had not been draining that much fluid, the doctor told Kevin that he could just pull out the rest of the tubing and I should be okay. We thought about this for a minute. We considered going next door to see if our neighbor who is a nurse was home or I about sent Kevin to go to church and get a friend who is a surgical nurse at Baptist to do it. Kevin was brave and he said he could do it. I laid down on our bed. Kevin washed his hands and grabbed our handy dandy scissors (I had a stitch holding the tube to my skin that he had to cut first). He snipped and pulled. It really didn't hurt too much but I was just so mad at myself that I cried. But it was over in just a second and now I am drain free.

I spoke to Dr. Lawson's nurse this morning and she seems to think I should be okay. I just need to make sure that I don't get a lot of swelling. If it starts to swell too much, I will need to go in and get the fluid drained. I am not too concerned. I am thankful that I know several nurses and my friend who is the surgical nurse has already told me that she would look at it and let me know if I need to see the doctor.

I made my appointment to go back to see Dr. Lawson on Friday, June 26. She will check my incisions and will give the results of the surgery. Pray that there was no more cancer in the lymph nodes so my treatment plan will be easier.