Frustration

I am home now, surprisingly. The doctors actually released me yesterday afternoon so I've been home now for almost 24 hours. Everything else has pretty much gone exactly opposite of what I have hoped. To put it mildly, I've been extremely frustrated with the way everything has been handled.

Thankfully, only one incision was made, although it is much larger than what I had anticipated--stretching from behind my left ear all the way down to the center of the front of my neck--probably a good six inches. This is better than if they had been forced to make another incision downward, making a sort of "Y" shape on my neck. They would have only had to do that if my lymph nodes were especially hard to get to, so at least I'm easily accessible.

I was not aware of this until two of them were installed, but apparently there is a new, preferred practice to the use of gauze and bandages for the purpose of keeping the wound clean and drained. It is called the Jackson-Pratt (JP) Drain and it is quite possibly one of the most annoying things ever. At least it isn't painful, but I feel like I'm in the Matrix or something because I've got two solid tubes stuck inside me that are supposed to drain away the fluids from inside my body. This drainage is driven by two bulbous, rubber reservoirs that just kind of dangle from my body. I know that sounds gross--and it is--but that is how it works. So I've got one going in on my upper neck and one going in down where the neck and chest meet.

Yesterday (Wednesday), the doctors said that I would be coming back in today (Thursday) to have one of the drains removed. Now, today, they are acting like they don't know what I'm talking about and it is really, really frustrating. I would be feeling much more forgiving about the whole matter if they hadn't messed up my prescriptions, too. Don't get me wrong, I think that they did a great job on the actual surgery, but the post-op care has left quite a bit to be desired. I didn't even get to see my doctor before being discharged. Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that standard practice would require the doctor to see the patient before he or she leaves the hospital.

So now I am just waiting...waiting...waiting for the hospital to call me back about getting one of these drains removed. Oh yeah, the other one...it's not scheduled to come out until Wednesday, July 6.