Fiddlesticks

Yesterday, I took Cathy to Jewish Hospital, across the street from Dr. Butterfield's office, to have a drain re-placed.  The redness from the apparent infection had improved, but with an ultrasound the radiologist was able to determine that there was enough fluid present to require a drain.  When the radiologist placed the drain the fluid pressure caused the fluid to squirt out a bit.  Since then, there has been a moderate flow, slightly greater than just before Cathy's first drain was removed.

It seems this is a fairly common occurrence.  The radiologist said he did three of them last week on reconstruction patients.  Cathy felt nearly instant relief from the pressure, but now has a little bit of pain from being fussed with.  She will probably have this drain removed Thursday or Monday.  There isn't much fluid flowing, but it's nice to know that it's going somewhere and not just accumulating.  

After the drain was placed we went over to Dr. Butterfield's office to have a Jackson-Pratt ball put on the end of the drain tube.  The JP ball provides the negative pressure necessary to gently draw the fluid out of Cathy's body.  The JP ball holds about 80 ml of fluid.  The most that I've ever seen Cathy put in a JP ball, right after her mastectomy was about 40 ml.  All these numbers will give you perspective on the hilarity of why we went to have the JP ball put on the end of her tube.  Jewish only uses drains with bags and a super long tube.  Cathy left Jewish with a tube so long it went down to her knee, came back up and looped around into her pocket before connecting to, get this, a 600 ml bag. Needless to say, this setup was a little cumbersome.  Now she has a tube that is about 8 inches long, connects to the little JP ball, and clips neatly to her bra.

She's doing well.  There was a short bout of frustration, but in typical Cathy style, she powered through it and is her normal, bright, cheerful, determined self.  I'm amazed by my wife.