A little Yikes

Had a really tough night last night.  Thought my drain might have been infected.  About midnight as I was trying to get to sleep the drain area began to hurt a bunch.  The ache spread across my chest and the pain increased to a 10 on the scale.  My head was pounding, too.  I felt ill all over now and had a fever.  For the next three and a half hours I laid in bed, terribly uncomfortable and in a ton of pain.  I knew I had a doctor's appointment in the morning so I just thought I needed to tough it out til then, no need to go to the emergency room.  If I didn't have that appointment I probably would have gone.  I managed to get about three hours of sleep, but woke up feeling miserable.  I got in the shower, hoping it would make me feel better.  As I stood there in pain, holding the bulb to my drain, all I could think about was when was this going to be over and I was reaching my limit with this part of my journey.

I arrived at the doctor's office about 10am still feeling like shit.  I knew they were not going to take out the drain because this morning when I woke up it had 30ml in it already (double what it was before I went to bed last nigh), and the fluid was still pretty red.  The doctors examined the area, the drain site was not infected.  We discussed my activity over the past couple of days and people I encountered that perhaps made me sick.  I told them that I had a pretty active day yesterday.  I did a lot of walking.  I was feeling well in the morning and went to watch the marathon runners.  The race ended near my house, so I walked over to the finish to check it out.  The walk ended up being a bit further than I had anticipated.  In my mind I figured I could always catch the bus back to my house, not thinking that they have rerouted them for the marathon.  By the time I walked home, I had covered about five miles, which is just a bit too much activity for someone who a) just had surgery a little over a week ago, and b) has lymphedema in her left arm.

I rested for a couple of hours Sunday afternoon, then went to meet some softball mates and celebrate St. Paddy's day.  I had a paddy melt and a Guinness at the bar before heading to my friends house for a mellow evening of cards.  (I also did a pre-St. Paddy's day celebration the night before with some other softball mates - I had two Guinness and a corned beef ruben with fries).  Now, apparently people with lymphedema are not supposed to have a lot of salt.  This did not occur to me at all, nor do I recall anyone telling me this either.  This could have also been a contributing factor to my horrible Sunday night and suddenly higher fluid output from the surgical drain.

What ever the reason at this point, I feel like blah and just want to get some sleep.  The doctors agreed. They will check on me again in a couple of days.  I have to get my stitches out then, too.  I left the office, ran a couple of errands and went to bed.