Right drains removed and I have some relief!!!

Hi everyone,

I had an interesting day yesterday. I started out at my doctor who handles pain management. She had been wanting to try cortisone injections in each hip to see if that would bring any relief to the pain in my legs. I currently take a combination of max. doses of celebrex, ultram and motrin. I don't want to take anything that makes me feel out of it. Regardless when I arrived at her appointment she saw that I still had all of the drains and said that we would have to wait. I was really disappointed. The surgery and drains make it more difficult for me to get to sleep and I can't seem to get to sleep before the ultram starts to wear off and I feel the pain in my legs. Oh well, she told me to ask my surgeons when it would be o.k., and promised to get me in for the injections right away. At least I'll be able to try it soon. And I REALLY DON'T want to slow the healing process.

Now to the good news . . . my breast surgeon was able to remove the drains on the right side!!! Yeah! Yeah! Everyone was so right. It has brought relief. He said that on Thursday, we would try again to remove the drains on the left side! I really hope that three weeks does the trick. I still didn't sleep well, but it is a definite RELIEF! Please pray that I can have the other side removed on Thursday.

My nurse also suggested that I wear a t-shirt under my blouse. She said that would help with the sensations in the upper chest. It was quite funny to see my husband trying to help me get into a t-shirt when I couldn't move my arms as he needed. I am not quite sure if it's helping, but I will give it more time. In reality, I don't want to face removing the t-shirt.

I also have a terrible rash on the upper chest and they believe it is an infection. So I am trying antibiotics. He will check it again on Thursday.

Now,Sandy after having the drains on the right side removed, I can't begin to imagine removing them on my own. You are truly amazing!! I want to ask you at a later date about your reconstruction experience. At this point I can't even begin to imagine going through it. Also my surgeon felt that it would be much easier for us to detect and remove any possible future problems.

I really want to Thank ALL of you for your responses. I couldn't believe it when I logged back on after leaving the message. Thank you all so very much!

May God Bless and Strenghthen Each of You,

Laura