Drainage after surgery

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finbeck
finbeck Member Posts: 11
in Breast Cancer #1

I was diagnosed siwth Stage 2 A estrogen + breast cancer and had a skin saving surgery with sedentary lymph node removal done on my right breast April 18 2019.  The lymph nodes were positive fior cancer.

I just had my second surgery to remove lymph nodes under my arm.June 18th, 2019. I have a JPEG drain in.  After my first surgery, I had issues with the JPEG not draining, but leaking around the tubing.  It finallly stopped after about 8 or 9 days.  Now it has been 11 days and it is still draining a clear fluid about 75cc a day.  It doesn't seem to be slowing down.  I am concerned because my right arm is weak and I want to execise it to build back my strength and keep the lymphadema down.  My ssurgeon doesn't want me exercising too much until the drainage stops.  He says the more I exercise, the more drainage there is.  I haven't found that it makes much difference what I do.  It still keeps coming.  Does anyone have any experience with this, any suggestions, any help?

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  • wallis2
    wallis2 Member Posts: 56 Member
    #2
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    Hi,

    Hi,

    Mine was leaking around my tube and came into a crust.  I didn't do anything until I went for a follow up and the doctor cleaned it up.  Sometimes the crust would fall off on its own.  Make sure you don't let it clog up or you will feel pain where the drainage has stopped. The doctor is right, if you excercise too much, the drainage will drain more.   I could tell when my drainage stopped or clogged up and the doctor showed me how to unclog the tube.  I wanted mine to drain more because I felt better.  I had to write down each day how much I drained and when it got down to a certain level my tubes was finally pulled out. It was almost a month in a half before my tube was removed. My doctor told me to excercise more, but don't over do it.  I have lumphadema and it hurts all the time.  

  • finbeck
    finbeck Member Posts: 11
    #3
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    wallis2 said:

    Hi,

    Hi,

    Mine was leaking around my tube and came into a crust.  I didn't do anything until I went for a follow up and the doctor cleaned it up.  Sometimes the crust would fall off on its own.  Make sure you don't let it clog up or you will feel pain where the drainage has stopped. The doctor is right, if you excercise too much, the drainage will drain more.   I could tell when my drainage stopped or clogged up and the doctor showed me how to unclog the tube.  I wanted mine to drain more because I felt better.  I had to write down each day how much I drained and when it got down to a certain level my tubes was finally pulled out. It was almost a month in a half before my tube was removed. My doctor told me to excercise more, but don't over do it.  I have lumphadema and it hurts all the time.  

    Wallis2,

    Wallis2,

    Thank you so much for your feed back.  With my first srugery, I had the dain pulled after 8 dais.  I don't feel so worried now that it is almost 2 weeks.  I e-mailed my doctor this morning to ask about it.  I am also concerned about lymphodema.  I try to massage my arem every night before bed.  What type of exercises are good to do without over doing it.  

    Thank you again

  • wallis2
    wallis2 Member Posts: 56 Member
    #4
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    finbeck said:

    Wallis2,

    Wallis2,

    Thank you so much for your feed back.  With my first srugery, I had the dain pulled after 8 dais.  I don't feel so worried now that it is almost 2 weeks.  I e-mailed my doctor this morning to ask about it.  I am also concerned about lymphodema.  I try to massage my arem every night before bed.  What type of exercises are good to do without over doing it.  

    Thank you again

    Wow, two weeks, I had mine

    Wow, two weeks, I had mine removed after a month.  I think mine stayed in longer because I wasn't excercising.  I did some, but not a lot.  I looked on You-Tube and got my ideas for excercising, but it's hard to say because you don't want to over do it.  I was hurting so bad..  Look on youtube and it will tell you about the excercise.   

  • Apaugh
    Apaugh Member Posts: 850 Member
    #5
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    be kind to yourself..

    Lymphatic exercise is not like your typical exercise.  Best to ask your doc to get you into Physical Therapy with a therapist that specializes in it.  Not everyone is.  

    Hugs,

    Annie

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