Recovery is going pretty well. Both incisions are healing nicely and I’m happy to report that I am now staple-free! Being my squeamish self, the two things that I was most dreading about the post-surgery period were the staples and the drain. At least the staples are now gone and I managed to not ever look at them…not even once 🙂

While there is less metal in my body now, I can not say the same for plastic tubing. Yep…the drain is still here. As I may not have mentioned much about the drain before, I will explain a little bit about it now. The lymph nodes in our bodies move a fluid called lymph around inside of us. Now that the lymph nodes have been removed from my left axilla (underarm!), the lymph needs somewhere to go, and for now, that somewhere is a Jackson-Pratt Drain. This drain (also called a JP Drain) is commonly used as a post-operative drain for collecting bodily fluids from surgical sites. The device consists of an internal drain connected to a grenade-shaped bulb via plastic tubing (Thanks Wikipedia for an excellent description!).

Since I have had this drain for over a week now, you may be wondering what happens with all the fluid that is collected in the bulb. Well, the super squeamish patient (me!) is responsible for emptying the fluid that collects in the bulb into a measuring container. Three times a day. Great fun! The fluid has to be measured as the volume of the fluid is the indicator for when the drain is ready to come out. Once the daily cumulative amount is less than 30 ml for two days in row, the drain can be removed. I’m not there yet, but I’m getting close! I’m still hopeful that the drain will be ready to be removed by this Sunday. Especially since it is getting somewhat uncomfortable around the drain site, despite my repeated use of extra-strength Tylenol.

Another big part of recovery is figuring out what I can and cannot do. My range of motion for my left arm is very limited right now. I’m supposed to do normal things using my left arm such as brushing my teeth and eating, but I can not do anything that involves reaching too far from my body or lifting my arm above my shoulder. In case you don’t already know, I’m left-handed, so having this arm become somewhat useless is challenging! And, the “no lifting above the shoulder” rule actually applies to both arms, as when you reach with one arm, it creates strain on the other. So yep, limited.

It has also been a fun time with the post-surgical effects on my left arm. The removal of the lymph nodes involves the cutting of some nerves, so this does some weird things over and above the pain and discomfort around the incision area. It makes the whole arm quite tender along with some other funky sensations. One of these is called cording. It literally feels like there is a cord running down my arm that is being pulled taut. This feeling is not constant and has only been really annoying a few times so far. The other weird thing that is happening is that the skin on the inside of my upper arm feels like it is chafed. I keep checking it repeatedly, and it’s not actually chafed. It just feels that way. Like I said…weird! But all of this is normal and most likely will go away over time.

Beyond this, other than not sleeping well, everything is progressing well so far. Once the drain is removed I can move on to the actual rehab portion of this whole thing. The rehab program will get me ready for the radiation treatments. In order to have the treatments completed, I need to be able to comfortably keep my left arm raised over my head for 20 minutes. The Radiation Oncologist will not start my treatments until I can meet this physical requirement. Despite the fact that radiation for me is insurance, not treatment, it is still in my best interest to be rehabilitated quickly so we can get this show on the road!