I smiled naively at the nurse when she walked in, blissfully unaware of the pain she was about to inflict! She took a good 10 minutes to work her way through all the tape they had used to secure the drain tube (apparently stitching it into my body wasn't enough!). Each time she tugged at the tape she put pressure on my significant cuts and at one stage was using my recently placed 'bolt-ons' as the anchoring point for her hand. I was working up quite a sweat in an effort to manage the pain but otherwise kept my cool (although "an angry song" was brewing).
She then warned me I'd feel 'a little sting' as she cut the stitches. I shut my eyes and breathed deeply. Sure enough a few 'little stings' but overall quite manageable. "Ok, now you'll feel another little sting as we remove the tube. Can you take a deep breath in for me Sarah?"
I did as I was instructed, taking a big breathe in. The nurse proceeded to "remove the tube" whilst I screamed in my head every c-bomb, f-bomb expletive I could think of in the angriest song I'd ever heard. A LITTLE f@#!ing sting - it felt like she'd taken a hot iron rod and dragged it from my arm pit to my waist. "There we go love, it's all done". Luckily for her I've been built with this firewall that prevents me from getting angry at people.
I smiled wearily and sank back in to the pillows - my only thought was, oh my goodness I have to do that all again with Strawberry! The nurse put some padding on my side, then clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Hmm, there's a little bit of leakage" she said as she swapped the padding for a thicker variety. A third pad was used and finally after 10 awkward minutes she was satisfied she could tape it up.
I have subsequently found out that this nurse forgot to turn off the suction before removing the tubing. So whilst the tube was coming out, it was diligently still sucking out whatever it passed by...hence the burning sensation and pile of gunk!
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