Dealing with post mastectomy drains and tubes

How I wish I’d thought about doing this video then - when I had all my drains and tubes. Well actually twice, first after the mastectomy and then after the failed reconstructive surgery a year later.

But I digress.

Look, after all the initial shock of hearing that you have breast cancer, and ‘yes’ you will lose your breast, this is all kind of ‘what more can they do to me’. You’re so past getting very upset about the details.

I had three drains each time. And they can be an annoying pain in the ass. And sorta embarrassing. Since I was traveling between UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas and my home in Reno, Nevada after each treatment and then surgery, I was forced to deal with the more public aspects of all this. There’s just no way to hide this getting on an airplane. But there are strategies, dear.

First watch how easy it is to empty your surgical drains:

It’s essential to have these drains. And it’s really, really important to leave them in as long as possible. Don’t whine for them to be taken out early. You will regret that.

I left mine in, as I tend to be a compliant patient. That went for over six weeks. I thought I’d melt down at times, but it was for the best. I saw other women insist on having them out, and then watched as they had to have the fluids taken out by a very large painful needle later.

Leave your drains in.

When traveling, or even just going out with your drains, either clip them to your pants or wear a light, loose belt and loop the belt through the drain holders. Wear a floppy shirt over. Another thing I did was to tie pretty scarves around the tops of the drains to hide them. It worked really well.

Taking an accurate note and writing it down of the amount of fluid in the drains when you empty them is essential. This is how your surgeon can tell how things are progressing with wound healing. Changes in the color of this fluid from darker red (indicating the presence of blood) to a lighter, clearer yellowish color is normal. The yellowish fluid is the normal lymphatic fluid that your body produces to clear away harmful things.

Make sure that you have a log to keep track of this fluid on a daily basis.

You will also want to gently clean around where the drain tubes exit your body. Just take some sterile guaze pads, moistened with a dab of alcohol, and gently wipe around the area. It’s essential to keep everything reasonably clean.

Here’s another nice lady talking about her drains:

Yup, they are a pain in the ass in the shower. But I dealt with it this way - I put on a cheap fabric belt that I looped through the drain holders and fastened around my waist while in the shower. After I got out and dried off, I would take a dry belt and thread it through for wearing the rest of the time.

The thing you don’t want to do is let them hang/swing freely as they will pinch and hurt where they are sutured into you and could pull out.

There is a couple kinds of cotton stretchy camisoles that you can order online that will have handy pockets to put the drains into. I had one of these but didn’t use it that much.

-maven